The U.S Department of education was established on October 17, 1979 under the presidency of Jimmy Carter. Yet wasn’t operational until 1980. Shirley Hufstedler was the first director of the department of education. She was the first woman to be head of a department. As of 2009 the current director is Arne Duncan who has been active since Obama’s inauguration.
The functions of this department are to establish education funding and policies and to monitor the use of funding. The department collects data and ignores research on America’s schools. They are the ones who identify problems in education and get the nation to be more aware of these issues. They make sure laws prohibiting discrimination are being executed.
The idea of this department has been struck down by republicans since it has been brought up the first time in the 1870’s. When Carter established the department, it became a major priority for republicans to dismantle it altogether. When Reagan became president he promised to dismantle it but he never got around to it. Other than trying to avoid being dismantled the department has had many issues including the No Child Left Behind Act. This act was signed into law in 2001 under rule of George W Bush. Its purpose it to increase federal budget for schools by the billions. It then graded school performance by individual state rather than nation. The act made students take standardized tests every year to make sure they were learning what they needed to in order to pass. Since then scores in reading and math have increased dramatically.
The U.S Department of education was established on October 17, 1979 under the presidency of Jimmy Carter. Yet wasn’t operational until 1980. Shirley Hufstedler was the first director of the department of education. She was the first woman to be head of a department. As of 2009 the current director is Arne Duncan who has been active since Obama’s inauguration. The functions of this department are to establish education funding and policies and to monitor the use of funding. The department collects data and ignores research on America’s schools. They are the ones who identify problems in education and get the nation to be more aware of these issues. They make sure laws prohibiting discrimination are being executed. The idea of this department has been struck down by republicans since it has been brought up the first time in the 1870’s. When Carter established the department, it became a major priority for republicans to dismantle it altogether. When Reagan became president he promised to dismantle it but he never got around to it. Other than trying to avoid being dismantled the department has had many issues including the No Child Left Behind Act. This act was signed into law in 2001 under rule of George W Bush. Its purpose it to increase federal budget for schools by the billions. It then graded school performance by individual state rather than nation. The act made students take standardized tests every year to make sure they were learning what they needed to in order to pass. Since then scores in reading and math have increased dramatically.