Jay P. Greene, PhD
As part of the debate over whether to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, some have argued that the department should be disbanded because it has completely failed in achieving its purpose. Student test scores have not significantly risen over the last 42 years. Gaps in achievement between different racial and income groups have not closed. Educational attainment has risen, but this largely seems to have been produced by degrading the standards for completing high school and enrolling in college.
But the evidence documenting long-term stagnation in educational outcomes does not demonstrate the failure of the department in achieving its goals. The Department of Education has performed wonderfully once you understand what its true purpose has always been. The department is designed to provide material and political benefits to the teachers’ unions, not to improve student outcomes. In achieving this goal, the Department of Education has been a smashing success.
You can divine the true purpose of the Department of Education from its history as well as from its spending priorities. The department was founded in 1980 by President Carter as a political reward to the National Education Association (NEA). Before the 1970s, the NEA largely operated as a professional association, focused on increasing the requirements for becoming a teacher. Of course, increased standards reduced the potential pool of teachers, which tended to increase the compensation to attract qualified educators. But these material rewards were largely a side-benefit and not the central concern of the NEA, which was more preoccupied with the status and perhaps the actual quality of the teaching profession.
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https://www.heritage.org/education/commentary/the-pork-barrel-politics-the-department-education