we still have the united states office of education which has existed pretty much since the beginning of the country. the "department of education" has only been around since 1980. it serves four purposes: > establishing policies on federal financial aid for education and distributing as well as monitoring those funds. > collecting data on america's schools and . disseminating research. > focusing national attention on key educational issues. > prohibiting discrimination and ensuring equal access to education. so, it appears it's min goal is to gather data from schools, analyze it, and then provide instructions for things they believe the schools should do differently, and if they don't have enough authority to enforce those instructions, lobby for new laws that mandate them. which seems to have only made things worse in recent years. they do oversee the pell-grant system, but that is implemented by law and much like it was before they were formed, any of their remaining duties can be disseminated to other federal departments.
United States