Remarks on the 40th Anniversary of the Establishment of the U.S. Department of Education: The Transformation of Federal Education Politics
Chris Cross and Ron Kimberling have spoken of the creation of the Department of Education and its earliest years in operation.
My own comments will focus on a broader issue of the Department of Education (ED) and the transformation of federal education politics. The establishment of ED was a major moment.
In short, the creation of the Department of Education rang the death knell for the very long national debate over the propriety of federal involvement in K-12 schooling.
Consider one point: Forty years ago, it was well within the bounds of political discourse to argue that we do not need a Department of Education. Today, anyone who takes that position waved off as a libertarian or troglodytic paleoconservative. Today, you cannot be president by arguing that we really do not need a Department of Education.
To fully appreciate how much federal education politics has changed, I want to step back and put the Ed Department in a larger historical context.
So, let’s think about this in three periods: Pre-1865, 1865 to 1980, and post 1980.
Pre-1865
As a general proposition, it is fair to say that education always has been valued in the United States. Being educated has been thought of as a quality that enables individual liberty and empowers self governance. Jefferson put matters pithily, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”
During this period, there was no question who has authority over education. It was parents, and localities, and eventually state governments.
From the earliest European settlements in America in the 1600s through the CONTINUE READING: Remarks on the 40th Anniversary of the Establishment of the U.S. Department of Education: The Transformation of Federal Education Politics – Federal Education Policy History
