Over the course of this most recent election cycle many may have heard about how Donald Trump has plans to eliminate the Department of Education at the federal level if he were to become President.
I’ve seen quite a bit of back and forth on the internet with those being in favor of eliminating the USDoE, and those in favor of further expanding it’s reach.
The USDoE has been around in some form or the other for a long time and has quite a storied history:
Way back in 1867 the original Department of Education was created under President Andrew Johnson, but it was soon demoted to an office within the Department of the Interior in 1868. Its primary function was to collect information on schools and teaching that would help states establish effective school systems.
The department was originally proposed by Henry Barnard and the then leaders of the National Teachers Association (renamed the National Education Association).
Barnard served as the first commissioner of education but resigned when the office was reconfigured as a bureau in the Department of Interior known as the United States Office of Education due to concerns it would have too much control over local schools.
In 1953, under the Truman administration, the functions of the Office of Education, as it was known to be at the time, were transferred to the newly created Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW).
In 1972, under the Nixon administration, the Emergency School Aid Act led to the establishment of an Assistant Secretary for Education within HEW, indicating a growing focus on educational policy.
In 1979, under the Carter administration, the Department of Education Organization Act was signed into law, which came into effect in 1980. This act split the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare into two separate entities: the Department of Education (ED) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The new Department of Education was established to help strengthen the federal commitment to ensuring access to equal educational opportunity for every individual. It was also designed to help supplement and/or complement the efforts of states, local school systems, and other instrumentalities of the states, the private sector, public and private educational institutions, community-based organizations, parents, and students to improve the quality of education.
Shirley Hufstedler became the first Secretary of Education under President Carter.
During the Reagan administration, Ronald Reagan aimed to abolish the Department of Education, seeing it as an overreach of federal government into state affairs, but this effort didn’t succeed due to opposition.
In 2001, under the Bush administration, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act was passed, representing a significant expansion of the federal role in education through standards-based education reform.
The Race to the Top initiative under then President Barack Obama, was a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, encouraging states to compete for federal education funding by implementing certain educational reforms.
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was also signed by President Obama in 2015, this law replaced NCLB, giving states more flexibility in determining school accountability systems.
The role of the Department of Education has always been a contentious one. Critics argue it represents federal overreach into what should be state and local matters, while proponents see it as vital for ensuring educational equity and standards across diverse states.
There have been ongoing debates about its effectiveness, the bureaucracy it has created or otherwise might create further on down the road, and whether education policy should be more localized.
As of 2024, the Department of Education oversees federal assistance to education, distributes funds, enforces federal educational laws regarding privacy and civil rights, and aims to ensure equal access to education.
Because of the overwhelming amount of bureaucracy the USDoE has accumulated over the years, the specifics of its policies and initiatives remain somewhat unclear and are pretty much left to the wind as each administration that comes along tries to mold it into what it might think is best for them and their respective ideologies.
Regardless of whether or not Donald Trump becomes President, I can see somewhere down the road where the USDoE might eventually come up against the June SCOTUS Chevron ruling in some fashion, thus curtailing somewhat the tremendous bureaucratic expansion the department has seen over the past 50 or so some odd years. When you look at the history of the U.S. Department of Education, one might come away with notion that it just might need to be scaled back a bit.
