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

Executive Departments of the United States

Executive DepartmentsDepartment of State •Department of the Treasury •Department of Defense •Department of Justice •Department of the Interior •Department of Agriculture •Department of Commerce •Department of Labor •Department of Health and Human Services •Department of Housing and Urban Development •Department of Transportation •Department of Energy •Department of Education •Department of Veterans Affairs •Department of Homeland Security

Department SecretariesMarco 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

TheU.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. TheUnited States Constitution does not mention any role for the federal government in education, and, according to theTenth Amendment, anything not mentioned in theConstitution 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 byCongress 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. TheNational 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 theNo 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: TheU.S. Supreme Court casePlessy 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 caseBrown v. Board of Education outlawed segregation precedent set inPlessy v. Ferguson.
• 1958: TheNational 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 theCivil Rights Act prohibited discrimination based on race, color or national origin in public schools.
• 1965: Title I of theElementary 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: TheNo Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) increased education funding and established standards-based testing reforms.
• 2010: TheRace to the Top program encouraged states to compete for federal grants in education.
• 2025: Education SecretaryLinda McMahon announced theU.S. Department of Education would transfer the administration of some federal K-12 and higher education programs to theU.S. Department of Labor, theU.S. Department of the Interior, theU.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and theU.S. Department of State.^[10]

Mission

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

Leadership

Administrative State
Read more about theadministrative state on Ballotpedia.

Organization

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

Education in the 50 states

Noteworthy events

U.S. Department of Education enters into agreements to transfer administration of some education programs to four federal agencies (2025)

On November 18, Education SecretaryLinda McMahon announced theU.S. Department of Labor, theU.S. Department of the Interior, theU.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and theU.S. Department of State would administer some federal K-12 and higher education programs through six interagency agreements with theU.S. Department of Education.^[13][14]

McMahon said the partnerships supported PresidentDonald Trump's March 20, 2025,executive order that called for closing the Education Department and returning its functions to the states.^[15] McMahon said, "The Trump Administration is taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states. Cutting through layers of red tape in Washington is one essential piece of our final mission."^[13]

McMahon announced the following partnerships:^[13]

• U.S. Department of Labor: Elementary and Secondary Education Partnership
• U.S. Department of Labor: Postsecondary Education Partnership
• U.S. Department of the Interior: Indian Education Partnership
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Foreign Medical Accreditation Partnership
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Child Care Access Means Parents in School Partnership
• U.S. Department of State: International Education and Foreign Language Studies Partnership

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

On May 22, 2025, U.S. District JudgeMyong 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 theInstitute 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. TheU.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administrative to resume enforcement of the executive order, pending the appeal.^[16][17][18]

Trump administration rescinds Obama-era guidance document (2018)

See also:Guidance (administrative state) andRulemaking

The Trump administration rescindedguidance documents in July 2018 that had been issued by the DOE under the Obama administration. Theguidance 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.^[19][20]

The decision to rescind the DOE'sguidance documents occurred in light of an investigation launched by theU.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.^[20][21]

Attorney GeneralJeff Sessions announced the policy change on July 3, 2018. In his announcement, Sessions stated that the DOE is required to adopt new regulations through therulemaking process, which provides members of the public with the opportunity to offer feedback onproposed rules duringpublic comment periods. He discouraged the agency from implementing regulations throughguidance documents, which are issued by agencies in order to explain, interpret, or advise interested parties about rules, laws, and procedures:^[19]

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

See also

External links

• Official Department of Education website
• Official Facebook page
• Official Twitter page
• Official Youtube channel
• Search Google News for this topic

Footnotes

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Dresch (2000) "Confronting the Administrative Threat" by Philip Hamburger and Tony Mills (2017) "Constitutionalism after the New Deal" by Cass R. Sunstein (1987) Federalist No. 23 by Alexander Hamilton (1787) "From Administrative State to Constitutional Government" by Joseph Postell (2012) "Interring the Nondelegation Doctrine" by Eric A. Posner and Adrian Vermeule (2002) "Rulemaking as Legislating" by Kathryn Watts (2015) "The Checks & Balances of the Regulatory State" by Paul R. Verkuil (2016) "The Myth of the Nondelegation Doctrine" by Keith E. Whittington and Jason Iuliano (2017) "The Progressive Origins of the Administrative State: Wilson, Goodnow, and Landis" by Ronald J. Pestritto (2007) "The Rise and Rise of the Administrative State" by Gary Lawson (1994) "The Study of Administration" by Woodrow Wilson (1887) "The Threat to Liberty" by Steven F. Hayward (2017) "Why the Modern Administrative State Is Inconsistent with the Rule of Law" by Richard A. Epstein (2008) Agencies Administrative Conference of the United States •United States Civil Service Commission •U.S. Government Accountability Office •U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs •U.S. Office of Management and Budget