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U.S. Department of Education

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Department of Education
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Secretary:Linda McMahon
Year created:1980
Official website:Ed.gov



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Executive Departments of the United States
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Department Secretaries
Marco Rubio • Scott Bessent • Pete Hegseth • Pam Bondi • Doug Burgum • Brooke Rollins • Lori Chavez-DeRemer • Robert F. Kennedy Jr. • Scott Turner • Howard Lutnick • Sean Duffy • Chris Wright • Linda McMahon • Doug Collins • Kristi Noem
See also: United States education agencies

The U.S. Department of Education is a United States executive department established in 1980. The department was formed to promote educational excellence and ensure equal opportunity for public schooling.[1] Of the 15 Cabinet agencies, the U.S. Department of Education has the smallest staff and the third largest discretionary budget.[2]

Linda McMahon is the U.S. secretary of education. Click here to learn more about her confirmation process.

History

Education in the U.S. is primarily the responsibility of states and local districts. The United States Constitution does not mention any role for the federal government in education, and, according to the Tenth Amendment, anything not mentioned in the Constitution is left to the states to decide. A federal department of education was originally created in 1867 to help the states set up school systems by gathering information about teaching, schools, and teachers. The current U.S. Department of Education was established by Congress in 1980. It united several existing offices across different agencies into a Cabinet level agency located in the executive branch. Over the years, the location of the department in the government and its name has changed several times, and its scope, number of personnel and budget has significantly increased.[1][3]

The department's mission of fostering educational excellence and equal access arose out of the cultural and political events in the post-World War II era. The National Defense Education Act (NDEA), the first comprehensive federal education law, was passed by Congress in 1958 in response to the Soviet launch of Sputnik during the Cold War. The department added its "public access" mission in response to anti-poverty and civil rights legislation of the 1960s and 1970s.[1][4]

Although the federal government provides only about 12 percent of the overall education spending of $1.15 trillion, the role of the federal government in setting education policy has grown considerably over the last several decades. The department implements laws passed by Congress and administers grants to states for certain programs, such as the No Child Left Behind Act, Race to the Top and Title One School Improvement Grants.[1][5][6]

Timeline

The following is a list of important dates in the history of the federal government's role in education:[7][8]

  • 1862: The First Morrill Act provided the first federal aid for higher education by donating land for setting up colleges.[9]
  • 1890: The Second Morrill Act established a support system for land-grant colleges and universities.
  • 1896: The U.S. Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson legalized segregation in "separate but equal" schools.
  • 1917: The Smith-Hughes Act extended federal aid to vocational education programs.
  • 1944: The GI Bill authorized assistance to veterans for postsecondary schools.
  • 1946: The Georgia-Barden Act established agricultural, industrial and home economics classes.
  • 1954: The U.S. Supreme Court case ''Brown v. Board of Education'' outlawed segregation precedent set in Plessy v. Ferguson.
  • 1958: The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) supported loans for college students; improved science, technology and foreign language support in elementary and secondary schools; and provided fellowships in response to the Cold War.
  • 1964: Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination based on race, color or national origin in public schools.
  • 1965: Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act gave federal aid to schools in poor rural and urban areas.
  • 1965: The Higher Education Act authorized federal aid for poor postsecondary students.
  • 1970: Standardized tests were given to public schools and the results were reported to the government and public in an effort to hold educators accountable.
  • 1972: Title IX of the Education Amendments prohibited discrimination based on sex in public schools.
  • 1973: Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act prohibited discrimination based on disability in public schools.
  • 1980: Congress passed the "Department of Education Organization Act," (Public Law 96-88 of October 1979).
  • 2001: The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) increased education funding and established standards-based testing reforms.
  • 2010: The Race to the Top program encouraged states to compete for federal grants in education.

Mission

The U.S. Department of Education's official department mission statement is as follows:

“ ED's mission is to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.

Congress established the U.S. Department of Education (ED) on May 4, 1980, in the Department of Education Organization Act (Public Law 96-88 of October 1979). Under this law, ED's mission is to:

  • Strengthen the Federal commitment to assuring access to equal educational opportunity for every individual;
  • Supplement and complement the efforts of states, the local school systems and other instrumentalities of the states, the private sector, public and private nonprofit educational research institutions, community-based organizations, parents, and students to improve the quality of education;
  • Encourage the increased involvement of the public, parents, and students in Federal education programs;
  • Promote improvements in the quality and usefulness of education through Federally supported research, evaluation, and sharing of information;
  • Improve the coordination of Federal education programs;
  • Improve the management of Federal education activities; and
  • Increase the accountability of Federal education programs to the President, the Congress, and the public.[10]
 ”
—Department of Education[11]

Leadership

Administrative State
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Recent Secretaries of Education
Secretary of Education Years in office Nominated by
Lamar Alexander 1991-1993 George H.W. Bush
Richard Riley 1993-2001 Bill Clinton
Roderick Paige 2001-2005 George W. Bush
Margaret Spellings 2005-2009 George W. Bush
Arne Duncan 2009-2015 Barack Obama
John King Jr. 2016-2017 Barack Obama
Betsy DeVos 2017-2021 Donald Trump
Miguel Cardona 2021-2025 Joe Biden
Denise Carter (acting) 2025-2025 Donald Trump
Linda McMahon 2025-present Donald Trump


Organization

Click here to view the Department of Education's organizational chart.

Education in the 50 states

Noteworthy events

Federal judge blocks President Trump's order to dismantle DOE (2025)

On May 22, 2025, U.S. District Judge Myong Joun blocked Trump's March 20 executive order to shut down the Department of Education (DOE) and ordered the administration to reinstate fired workers. In a lawsuit, several education groups claimed that the Trump Administration hindered the department's ability to fulfill its mandated responsibilities, which include providing financial aid, supporting special education, and protecting civil rights. The executive order, titled "Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities," was written to shift education authority to the states and close the DOE beyond its "core necessities" of distributing Title I funding for low-income schools, money for special education, and Pell grants. On March 11, 2025, the Trump Administration laid off 1,300 workers, leaving the department with half its former workforce and most significantly impacting Federal Student Aid, the Office for Civil Rights, and the Institute of Education Sciences. Joun wrote that the layoffs "will likely cripple the Department," and noted that "the Department cannot be shut down without Congress’s approval." The Trump administration filed an appeal days later.[12][13]

Trump administration rescinds Obama-era guidance document (2018)

See also: Guidance (administrative state) and Rulemaking

The Trump administration rescinded guidance documents in July 2018 that had been issued by the DOE under the Obama administration. The guidance documents encouraged institutions of higher education to consider race as a factor in the admissions process as a means to achieving student diversity. The documents provided legal recommendations and contextual examples for schools considering race as a component of the admissions process.[14][15]

The decision to rescind the DOE's guidance documents occurred in light of an investigation launched by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in the summer of 2017 regarding allegations that Harvard University discriminated against Asian-American applicants by holding them to a higher standard than other applicants.[15][16]

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the policy change on July 3, 2018. In his announcement, Sessions stated that the DOE is required to adopt new regulations through the rulemaking process, which provides members of the public with the opportunity to offer feedback on proposed rules during public comment periods. He discouraged the agency from implementing regulations through guidance documents, which are issued by agencies in order to explain, interpret, or advise interested parties about rules, laws, and procedures:[14]

“ The American people deserve to have their voices heard and a government that is accountable to them. When issuing regulations, federal agencies must abide by constitutional principles and follow the rules set forth by Congress and the President. In previous administrations, however, agencies often tried to impose new rules on the American people without any public notice or comment period, simply by sending a letter or posting a guidance document on a website. That's wrong, and it's not good government.[14][10] ”

Sessions previously instructed the DOJ to refrain from issuing regulations through guidance documents in a November 2017 agency memo. For more information about Sessions' DOJ memo on guidance, click here.

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 U.S. Department of Education, "About Ed: Overview and Mission Statement," accessed October 2, 2013
  2. ↑ U.S. Department of Education, "The Federal Role in Education," accessed November 10, 2015
  3. ↑ U.S. Department of Education website, "The Federal Role in Government," accessed January 20, 2014
  4. ↑ U.S. Department of Education website, "The Federal Role in Government," accessed January 20, 2014
  5. ↑ U.S. Department of Education website, "The Federal Role in Government," accessed January 20, 2014
  6. ↑ U.S. Department of Education, "Policy Overview," accessed January 20, 2014
  7. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named hist
  8. ↑ Today, "Timeline: Moments that changed public education," accessed October 3, 2013
  9. ↑ ourdocuments.gov, "Morrill Act (1862)," accessed April 18, 2014
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  11. ↑ U.S. Department of Education, "Mission," accessed November 10, 2015
  12. ↑ The White House, "Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities," March 20, 2025
  13. ↑ PBS, "Judge blocks Trump’s executive order to dismantle Education Department," May 22, 2025
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 CNN, "Trump administration reverses Obama-era guidance on use of race in college admissions," July 3, 2018
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 The Wall Street Journal, "Trump Administration to Rescind Obama Guidelines on Race in College Admissions," July 3, 2018
  16. ↑ The Wall Street Journal, "Court Filings Detail Role of Race in Harvard Undergraduate Admissions," June 15, 2018
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