The U.S. Department of Education was created in 1867 to collect information on schools and teaching to help states establish efficient and effective school sytems. It disseminates that information to parents, educators, policy makers, and the general public. The Department was reestablished by Congress in May 1980 under the Department of Education Organization Act with the mission of improving the country's schools, enforcing educational standards, and fostering parent and community involvement in education. The agency also regulates grants and federal loans for college and university students.

Seeking improvement

Because of the diverse goals of the Department of Education, its employees work within a Byzantine maze of offices, all led by a cabinet-level Secretary of Education who decides, enforces, and publicizes the agency's more far-reaching goals. For example, in 1983, former Secretary of Education Terrel Bell issued a report entitled A Nation At Risk, which revealed that American students were achieving at lower levels than students in other nations. In response, individual states and communities took steps to raise their high school graduation requirements. Within ten years, the proportion of high school graduates taking the core curriculum recommended in the report more than tripled.

Richard Riley, the current Secretary of Education, has based the Department's current priorities on President Clinton's "Call to Action," announced during his 1997 State of the Union Address. Priorities include raising standards for all students; involving parents and family members in the educational process; strengthening connections between school and work; making schools safe, disciplined, and drug free; and making financial aid for college more accessible to those in need. According to Clinton's plan, by the year 2000, "every 8-year old must be able to read; every 12-year old must be able to log onto the Internet, every 18-year old must be able to go to college, and every adult American must be able to keep on learning for a lifetime." But they can't take drugs - the DOE announced in 1999 that any student convicted of a drug offense is not eligible for government financial aid.

Initiatives launched to help achieve these goals include the America Reads Challenge, the Technology Literacy Challenge, and America's HOPE Scholarships (for students in the first two years of college).

Easy target

The Department of Education has always been a target for conservative politicians who like to point out the gulf between the Department's rhetoric and results. Critics also say the Department is infringing upon the traditional state and local control of education.

A major source of controversy is Title I, the Federal government's largest education grant program. Launched as part of the War on Poverty in the 1960s, the program provides $7.4 billion annually to help poor students in public schools. Much of the money has been used for extra computers, tutoring, and salaries for classroom aides who work with small groups and individual students.

Though it was well-intended, critics say Title I "has been a failure up to now," and are calling for significant changes. In a 1998 evaluation, the Department of Education found that the investment has been "insufficient to close the gap in reading and math skills" between poor students and their more affluent counterparts. According to the report, the gap between 9-year olds in "high-poverty" and "low-poverty" schools either remained the same or increased between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s. On average, poor students are left nearly four grade levels behind affluent pupils in reading and two levels behind them in math. The Department also found that Title I "reinforced low expectations for student achievement" by "tolerating low academic standards for poor and minority students." Students in "high-poverty" schools are often given a "watered-down, non-challenging curriculum" compared to other students.

To aid, or not to aid

Also in question is the practice of hiring aides (or "paraprofessionals") to help students instead of certified teachers. Some critics claim the hiring of Title I aides has degenerated into "a jobs program" in many communities. Furthermore, studies found that poor children were more likely to be taught by Title I aides instead of certified teachers. When Title I was reauthorized in 1994, Congress stipulated that students in the program be held to the same academic standards as other children, and required (for the first time) that aides have at least a high school diploma (only 13% of Title I aides have college degrees). Though some paraprofessionals are required to study part time for teaching degrees, most Department officials believe program money should go to certified instructors and towards furthering the education of professional teachers.

E-rate

One effective program launched by the Department of Education was the introduction of the E-rate, which ensures that all eligible schools and libraries in the U.S. receive discounts on Internet access and other telecommunications services. The government also committed $1.7 billion to the effort. A survey reported in March 1999 reports that more than half of all classrooms in America are connected to the Internet - nearly twice as many connections as in 1998.