Monday, June 23, 2025
If you graduated from high school prior to 1980, you did so without the benefit of the United States Department of Education. The department was established during the administration of President Jimmy Carter. It began operating on May 4, 1980 as a cabinet-level department of the U.S. government.
At the time, the United States was ranked No. 1 worldwide in education. So, basically, those of us older than 61-ish graduated from high school without the Federal Department of Education.
Now, it’s important to understand the breakdowns of the various rankings. Saying or claiming that we were No. 1 is confusing, at the very least, and disingenuous, at most. Ranks are determined in so many different areas. There are rankings for the number of adults receiving high school diplomas (the U.S. is currently No. 8 in the world rankings), and the number of years spent in formal education (the U.S. is no. 23). We’re ranked sixth in reading, 13th in science and 28th in mathematics.
The U.S. spends $21,000 per pupil, ranking us third, behind Luxembourg and Norway. Our “overall” world ranking is just 17th.
Now, again, trying to follow my policy of not taking sides, but rather just putting the facts out there for people to digest, these numbers are almost impossible to correlate in a straight line. It is also very difficult for me to be objective, having spent my life in education.
The United States does try to educate everyone, while many countries do not. We also provide more in the areas of transportation, meals and special services for students in need.
These things do not reflect well in all the statistical data.
All of this data is also nationwide averages. We must realize that many of our states are larger than other countries. The other variable is local funding — what we collect in property taxes. Obviously, higher-income geographical areas spend more per pupil than economically disadvantaged areas.
So, since we know that Americans typically prefer local control over just about everything, education should be no different. Local school boards and state governments really drive the day-to-day operations of our schools. We know that educational standings vary greatly from state to state. There seems to be no federal benchmark for states to maintain, so standardization doesn’t seem to be a goal of this federal agency.
In that case, what, exactly, does the federal, cabinet-level U.S. Department of Education do? Well, it currently has 4,400 employees and a $238 billion budget. And, under the 10th Amendment, the Department of Education should not be involved in local educational standards. It is tasked with actually doing the following: 1) administering federal financial aid, 2) undertaking research, 3) recommending reforms and 4) prohibiting discrimination.
Again, can’t the states, along with locally elected school boards, handle these tasks? And probably handle them better, and more efficiently, than a federal department in Washington?
Most of us have a gut feeling that education was better in the 1940s, ’50s, ’60s and even the ’70s than it is today. I often hear people saying, let’s get back to the basics — reading writing and arithmetic. But obviously the global economy, expanding technology and changing times often require studying more than the basics.
I can tell you this: During my 40 years of teaching, I would be hard pressed to tell you of any influence the U.S. Department of Education had on my classroom, curriculum or daily lessons. I do know that those who my local Board of Education has hired and fired, as well as all of the policies and procedures the board has implemented and overseen, are the factors that affected students, teachers, administrators and staff on a daily basis.
Parents who elected those school board trustees and attended school board meetings were far more important to me than the U.S. secretary of education.
We are talking about our future, our children and our hard-earned money. How can we stay active, informed and do what is best for the next generation?
Ed Fare is the mayor of Valley Stream.
