Chapter 9 - The Federal and State Government and Education

Chapter Notes (Lunenburg, F. C., & Ornstein, A. C. (2000)

The Federal Role in Education The Federal contribution to national education expenditures is about 9 percent. However, this 9 percent includes educational expenditures from other Federal agencies, such as the Department of Health and Human Services' Head Start program and the Department of Agriculture's School Lunch program. Subtract these dollars, and ED is left with only about 6 percent of total education spending, or roughly $42 billion a year. That $42 billion, by the way, is about 1.9 percent of the Federal Government's $1.9 trillion budget.

Changing Roles in the Federal Government and Education

• Current Period: 1980s and 1990s - The Cold War stimulated the first example of comprehensive Federal education legislation, when in 1958 Congress passed the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) in response to the Soviet launch of Sputnik. To help ensure that highly trained individuals would be available to help America compete with the Soviet Union in scientific and technical fields, the NDEA included support for loans to college students, the improvement of science, mathematics, and foreign language instruction in elementary and secondary schools, graduate fellowships, foreign language and area studies, and vocational-technical training.
  • The anti-poverty and civil rights laws of the 1960s and 1970s brought about a dramatic emergence of the Department's equal access mission. The passage of laws such as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 which prohibited discrimination based on race, sex, and disability, respectively made civil rights enforcement a fundamental and long-lasting focus of the Department of Education.
  • In 1965, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act launched a comprehensive set of programs, including the Title I program of Federal aid to disadvantaged children to address the problems of poor urban and rural areas. And in that same year, the Higher Education Act authorized assistance for postsecondary education, including financial aid programs for needy college students. In 1980, Congress established the Department of Education as a Cabinet level agency. Today, ED operates programs that touch on every area and level of education.
  • The Department's elementary and secondary programs annually serve 15,000 school districts and more than 50 million students attending over 85,000 public schools and more than 26,000 private schools. Department programs also provide grant, loan, and work-study assistance to more than 8 million postsecondary students.
• Clarifying the Federal Role in Education
• The Department of Education Congressional Influence on Education Federal
• Programs and Activities in Education
• Grants for Schools
• Grants for Colleges
• Vocational Education Acts
• Relief Acts
• War Acts
• National Defense Education Act
• Compensatory Education Acts
• Title IX
• Bilingual Education
• Education for the Handicapped
• Educational Consolidation and Improvement Act (ECIA)

National Reform of Education The Call for Excellence

• Need for Caution

State Government and Education

• State Hierarchy of Education - The U.S. Constitution did not specifically address education. Consequently, education was reserved to the states and each state constitution made some provisions concerning education. In each state, the legislature is the body responsible for making educational policy.
• When the Common School movement occurred, most states went through the following steps in establishing control over the schools: 1. First, the state legislatures enacted permissive legislation which allowed the various sections of the state to organize school districts. Most Northern states followed the Massachusetts district pattern of organization. The school district became an instrument or agency of the state which executed the state's policy for the administration of public education. 2. Second, the state legislatures then encouraged the districts to levy taxes for the support of the public schools. Encouragement took the form of giving funds or grants-in-aid to school districts that were taxing themselves for school support. In most cases, local school districts supported the schools by levying a property tax. These local funds would then be supplemented by state funds. 3. Third, the state legislatures then mandated compulsory public schooling.
• In other words, the states required school districts to provide public education for al children within their district boundaries. This movement to establish the common or public schools occurred first in the new England states, where Massachusetts was the leader, then in the states of the old Northwest Territory, followed by the Middle Atlantic states. The South did not have effective public school legislation until Reconstruction.
• Horace Mann (1796-1859) is sometimes referred to as the "Father of American Public Education." He led the movement for the common schools in Massachusetts and was so successful that other New England states imitated Massachusetts
• The Governor
• State Legislatures
• State Courts
• State Education Agencies
• The State Board of Education. Here is what the Michigan State Board of Education looks like http://www.mde.state.mi.us/off/board/ - Please read all of this carefully.
• Chief State School Officer
• State Departments of Education
• State Reform Movements
• Lessons to Be Learned
• State-School District Relationship

Guidelines for Reform

Practicve Quiz 1

Practice Quiz 2

Practice Quiz 3