United States Department of Education

The United States Department of Education (also known as ED) is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. Created by the Department of Education Organization Act (Public Law 96-88), it began operating in 1980.

Its functions were previously in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare which was divided into the Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services when President Carter signed the Department of Education Organization Act into law on October 17, 1979. It began operation on May 4, 1980. It is administered by the United States Secretary of Education.

It is by far the smallest cabinet-level department, with about 5,000 employees. The agency's official acronym is ED (and not DOE, which refers to the United States Department of Energy.)

History
Unlike the educational system of most other countries, education in the United States is highly decentralized, and the federal government and Department of Education are not heavily involved in determining curriculum or educational standards. This job of centralization and coordination has been left to large private educational foundations. Rather, the primary function of the United States Department of Education is to formulate federal funding programs involving education and to enforce federal educational laws involved with privacy and civil rights. The quality of educational institutions and their degrees is maintained through an informal private process known as accreditation which the Department of Education has no direct public jurisdictional control over.

A previous Department of Education was created in 1867, but was soon demoted to an Office in 1868. Its creation a century later in 1979 was controversial and opposed by many in the Republican Party, who saw the department as unwanted federal bureaucratic intrusion into local affairs. Throughout the 1980s, the abolition of the Department of Education was a part of the Republican Party platform, but Bush Republican administrators declined to implement this idea. By the mid-1990s, with President Clinton's equal support similar to President Bush, there was little leadership for the demotion of the department.

The elevation of the Department to cabinet status was controversial. President Reagan sought to eliminate it as a cabinet post but did not go through with the threat. Under President George W. Bush, the Department has primarily focused on elementary and secondary education, through its focus on the "No Child Left Behind" law, while considerably marginalizing higher education.

Operating units
The following sub-agency components (known as Principal Office Components) exist at ED:


 * OS &mdash; Office of the Secretary
 * OCO &mdash; Office of Communications and Outreach
 * OPEPD &mdash; Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development
 * OGC &mdash; Office of the General Counsel
 * OIG &mdash; Office of the Inspector General
 * IES &mdash; Institute of Education Sciences
 * OCR &mdash; Office for Civil Rights
 * OCFO &mdash; Office for the Chief Financial Officer
 * OM &mdash; Office of Management
 * OCFO &mdash; Office for the Chief Financial Officer
 * OLCA &mdash; Office for the Legislative and Congressional Affairs


 * ODS &mdash; Office of the Deputy Secretary
 * OESE &mdash; Office of Elementary and Secondary Education
 * White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans
 * OSDFS &mdash; Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools
 * OELA &mdash; Office of English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement and Academic Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students
 * OSERS &mdash; Office of Special Educational and Rehabilitation Services
 * OII &mdash; Office of Innovation and Improvement


 * OUS &mdash; Office of the Under Secretary
 * OPE &mdash; Office of Postsecondary Education
 * White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities
 * White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities
 * FSA &mdash; Office of Federal Student Aid
 * OVAE &mdash; Office of Vocational and Adult Education