President Carter created the Department to help ensure the promise of the Supreme Court’s monumental 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, ending racial segregation in public schools. Brown ushered in an era of equal educational opportunities as Congress adopted such significant federal statutes as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act 1965 to provide financial assistance to enhance for schools serving low-income students, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 to end discrimination based on sex in programs receiving federal financial assistance, and the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) in 1975 to assist children with special needs.
President Carter created the Department despite criticisms from his own Cabinet in the hope of assuring a federal role in ensuring equal educational opportunities in K-12 and higher education by providing, and monitoring, limited financial aid including overseeing college loans. The Department also supports research on educational reform, disseminating its findings in the hope of improving schooling at all levels.
Conversely, critics point out that the Department’s 2024 budget request was $90 billion. Other estimates are that it spends more than $1.5 billion annually for about 4,500 employees plus multiple buildings in Washington, D.C. The critics maintain that the Department’s bloated bureaucracy and budget have outgrown its usefulness after having spent up to three trillion dollars. Critics add that it is time to return greater authority to the States because student test scores in mathematics and reading improved modestly at best despite federal involvement.
To borrow a phrase reminiscent of President Bill Clinton’s comment on affirmative action, “mend it, don’t end it,” seems to be the better solution. In other words, some federal mandates, such as serving students with disabilities are meritorious if funded adequately, a promise the Department failed to keep as it barely provides states with 10% of costs for implementing IDEA programming are crucial. In an effort to allay concerns, Trump assured that “critical functions” such as providing assistance for students with disabilities will be preserved in full through the Department of Health and Human Services. HSS currently handles Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, another federal statute banning discrimination against individuals with disabilities.
A slimmed down DOE should thus focus on select areas rather than try to be “all things for all people,” respecting the role of States as primary drivers of educational policy. In sum, it is important for the Federal Government to retain some involvement in schooling to ensure that American students receive the equal educational opportunities to which they are entitled.
Charles J. Russo, J.D., Ed.D., is the Joseph Panzer Chair of Education in the School of Education and Health Sciences (SEHS) and Research Professor of Law in the School of Law at the University of Dayton.
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