What Does the Department of Education Do?
With a bill before Congress to abolish the Department of Education by Dec. 31, 2026, and an Education Secretary nominee who seems on board with that, it's probably worth asking what exactly the Department of Education does. Because beyond the botched rollout of the new FAFSA last year, its actual doings don't get a lot of attention.
The Department's mission is "to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access." It is actually one of the newer Cabinet departments, having been created in 1979 when the Department of Health, Education and Welfare was split into the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. Only Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security are newer; some Cabinet departments, such as Treasury and State, date back to our nation's founding.
The Education Department had a budget of just under $80 billion in Fiscal 2024, putting it right in the middle of the 15 Cabinet departments in terms of expenditure. Its 4,200 employees make it the smallest department in terms of headcount; the next smallest department, by headcount, is Housing and Urban Development with 9,000. Compare that with Agriculture, with a budget of $242 billion and 100,000 employees and you might wonder how much efficiency could be squeezed out of Education.
Eliminating Cabinet departments isn't new, but it isn't common either. There are seven former departments; all but the Post Office department, which became the US Postal Service in 1971, were either separated into multiple departments (as was the case with Health, Education and Welfare) or merged into a single department (as were Navy, Army and Air Force into Defense).
With that background, let's get back to the original question: What does the Department of Education do? Its mission encompasses the following objectives:
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.
In the US, education is primarily a state responsibility. States and private entities establish schools and colleges, develop curricula and set graduation and completion standards. And, states and private entities are the primary funders of education: the total federal contribution to education is about 8% of total education spending. This includes funding from several sources, not just the Department of Education: school lunches funded by the Department of Agriculture and Head Start programs administered by the Department of Health and Human Services also contribute to that total.
The Department of Education has responsibilities spanning not just higher education but K-12, vocational and rehabilitative education, language acquisition and adult education. In addition, its research division, the Institute of Education Sciences, facilitates research on education issues and academic performance. Specific programs include:
Title I grants that supplement funding for K-12 schools with high rates of poverty.
Special education programs
School improvement grants
Career and technical education in K-12 schools
Training, professional development and support for new teachers
Support for English language learners at all levels
Overseeing the FAFSA
Issuing student loans
Overseeing Pell Grants
Investigating and resolving civil rights issues in schools
Funding education research including the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or the Nation’s Report Card
Overseeing accreditation of higher education institutions
Here are just a few programs that the Department of Education is responsible for:
College Scorecard allows students to compare colleges based on outcomes including costs, student debt, post-college earnings, graduation rates and more
Magnet and charter school grants
The Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP) helps rural school districts pursue education grants
The Javits Gifted and Talented Education program provides grants to support state and local efforts for gifted and talented students
The Grants to States program helps states pay for special education and related services to children with disabilities
Vocational Rehabilitation State Grants provide funding to states to help individuals with disabilities become gainfully employed
Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grants provide supplemental funding to students whose parents died in military service in Iraq or Afghanistan
The Veterans Upward Bound Program helps veterans enroll and complete higher education
While education is primarily a state responsibility in the US, there's a federal role too. According to the Census Bureau, the average American moves 11.7 times during their lifetime, and on average 9.1 times after age 18. And about 20% of students go to college out of state. So there's a good chance that a person might get their high school diploma in one state, college degree in another, and then work in a third. (My son can't possibly be the only one!) Here's a hypothetical: what if, absent federal oversight, the Ivy Leagues decided that they would no longer admit students from specific states due to those states' educational systems not providing adequate preparation? In a highly mobile, interconnected society, it makes sense to ensure that we have some consistency and oversight in ensuring that students get a baseline level of education no matter where their parents chose to live.
Fraud, waste and efficiency are popular words right now. May I pose a question: How do we best ensure that our kids are able to acquire the knowledge and skills to compete in a global economy? Education has many purposes beyond that: developing a skilled workforce, empowering individuals to contribute to society, developing critical thinking abilities, creating economic self-reliance, to name a few. Not all of those are quantifiable in terms of dollars spent achieving specific outcomes, but they are-- or should be-- things we value and want to improve upon.
