A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or perhaps both.
- James Madison to William T Barry, August 4, 1822
Yup, that crap about terminating the Education Department has got the ole hamster wheel spinning in my noggin. Figured I might as well get right to it with everybody's favorite dismal scientist, Adam Smith:
Though the state was to derive no advantage from the instruction of the inferior ranks of people, it would still deserve its attention that they should not be altogether uninstructed. The state, however, derives no inconsiderable advantage from their instruction. The more they are instructed the less liable they are to the delusions of enthusiasm and superstition, which, among ignorant nations, frequently occasion the most dreadful disorders. An instructed and intelligent people, besides, are always more decent and orderly than an ignorant and stupid one.
Even in this benighted country, it has long been understood that an educated and informed populace is vital to the health of a republic. To that end, for example, Benjamin Rush advocated subsidies for postal delivery of newspapers and other publications (our first internet), observing in 1787:
For the purpose of diffusing knowledge, as well as extending the living principle of government to every part of the united states—every state—city—county—village—and township in the union, should be tied together by means of the post-office. This is the true non-electric wire of government. It is the only means of conveying heat and light to every individual in the federal commonwealth.
Later the same year, while a proposed new Constitution was being hammered out, the Continental Congress organized territory northwest of the Ohio River (it would become OH, IN, IL, MI, WI, and MN). They passed the Northwest Ordinance, which stated that "knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged."
Of course, our peculiar brand of federalism does mean schooling is a more a devolved affair and left to the states, which is why any national efforts are necessarily rather modest. Consider, DoD's budget is approaching $1T, whereas we allocate less than $100B for the ED.
To those who say stupid shit like, "I don't see 'education' in the constitution," I can only point out that it is also not expressly prohibited by Art I, Sec 9. What's more, there are many things the early Congresses supported that are not explicitly mentioned, such as lighthouses and veterans' pensions. Yet taking the Elastic Clause into account, we can understand that these things are both Necessary and Proper to carry out powers enumerated in Sec 8 (regulate Commerce, provide for the common Defence).
Of course, debating where the Necessary/Proper line is precisely...is precisely Congress' job, but a simple search for words in the Constitution is dispositive of nothing. If military academies enable Defence, a general education can just as easily be argued to enable Commerce (gotta be able to count money, at the very least), Science and useful Arts (researchers and inventors need education, too), not to mention the general Welfare (given the same prominence as Defence in the Constitution...twice).
With this in mind, it strikes me as natural in the wake of a conflict that tore our nation apart, the United States created a department to collectively, as a nation, assist the States in educating the People. It was almost all done by February 26, 1867:
Mr. TRUMBULL. I move that the Senate proceed to the consideration of House bill No. 276. The motion was agreed to and the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to consider the bill (H. R. No. 276) to establish a Department of Education.
It proposes to establish at the city of Washington a Department of Education for the purpose of collecting such statistics and facts as shall show the condition and progress of education in the several States and Territories, and of diffusing such information respecting the organization and management of schools and school systems and methods of teaching as shall aid the people of the United States in the establishment and maintenance of efficient school systems, and otherwise promote the cause of education throughout the country.
Take note of the purpose, because we'll come back to it. But first look at a weird little constitutional objection:
Mr. COSINESS. I move to amend the bill by striking out the word "department" where ever it occurs and inserting the word "bureau." I do not see how we can avoid considerable complication by calling this, which is to be but a bureau, a department, when we have Departments, and the degree of their consequence is well understood.
The head of a Department is entitled to seat in the Cabinet. The distinction is so clear and well established that I think there can scarcely be a difference of opinion as to the propriety of keeping it up. It certainly can add nothing to the dignity or to the efficiency or usefulness of this establishment to call it a department as contradistinguished from calling it a bureau, which it is to be.
A department, meaning one great branch of the administrative part of this Government, should not be dwarfed by giving the term and name and designation now to an establishment which is to have two or three clerks. The head of the department is called a commissioner, the same term and designation that is applied to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, of Agriculture, and the other bureaus of the second order of importance in the Government. I hope the Senator having charge of the bill will see the propriety of this change.
Mr. TRUMBULL. I do not think there is any great importance in the word that is employed here. I beg leave to say, however, to the Senator from California that there is no law that makes the head of a Department a member of the Cabinet.
Mr. CONNESS. I am aware of that. I did not say there was.
Mr. TRUMBULL. I understood the Senator to say that the heads of Departments were members of the Cabinet.
Mr. CONNESS. That is true.
Mr. TRUMBULL. No ; I have never understood that the distinguished head of the Agricultural Department is a member of the Cabinet.
Mr. CONNESS. That is not a Department.
Mr. TRUMBULL. I believe it is so called in the law.
Mr. SUMNER. By law it is a Department.
Mr. TRUMBULL. It is by the law called a Department ; and I do not understand -
Mr. CONNESS. If the Senator will pardon me, I will say right here that it is now stated to me by a Senator that the head of that Department, I will call it, has upon more than one occasion declared that although entitled to a seat in the Cabinet by reason of the dignity of the Department, yet he has never contended for it and never sought it.
Mr. WILSON. He thinks he will get it soon.
[Laughter.]
I mean, words are supposed to mean stuff, I guess, so perhaps the terminology issue was important to point out. There was, in fact, a bill debated in the House a year prior that did use 'bureau' while placing Education within the Interior Department, but the act ultimately signed by Johnson on March 2 went the other direction.
That 1866 version was introduced by future-assassinated president, James Garfield, along with a memorial from the National Association of State and City School Superintendents. They recommended Congress establish a new...whatever:
[T]he interests of education would be greatly promoted by the organization of such a bureau at the present time; that it would render needed assistance in the establishment of school systems where they do not now exist, and that it would also prove a potent means for improving and vitalizing existing systems. This it could accomplish -
(1) By securing greater uniformity and accuracy in school statistics, and so interpreting them that they may be more widely available and reliable as educational tests and measures.
(2) By bringing together the results of school systems in different communities, States, and countries, and determining their comparative value.
(3) By collecting the results of all important experiments in new and special methods of school instruction and management, and making them the common property of school officers and teachers throughout the country.
(4) By diffusing among the people information respecting the school laws of the different States; the various modes of providing and disbursing school funds; the different classes of school officers and their relative duties; the qualifications required of teachers, the modes of their examination, and the agencies provided for their special training; the best methods of classifying and grading schools; improved plans of schoolhouses, together with modes of heating and ventilation, etc., information now obtained only by a few persons and at great expense, but which is of the highest value to all intrusted with the management of schools.
(5) By aiding communities and States in the organization of school systems in which mischievous errors shall be avoided and vital agencies and well-tried improvements be included.
(6) By the general diffusion of correct ideas respecting the value of education as a quickener of intellectual activities; as a moral renovator; as a multiplier of industry and a consequent producer of wealth; and, finally, as the strength and shield of civil liberty:
The current ED has a similar mission:
- 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.
I note there still is nothing about Federal control of education itself. Returning to the debate:
Mr. HOWE. Mr. President, the struggle to emancipate the nation is just ended. The struggle to enfranchise the nation is almost ended. The struggle to educate the nation is just commencing, and commencing with bill. I shall not detain the Senate except s0 long as to any that viewing it in that light I shall give my vote and my whole heart to this bill. That it is the best bill that could be prepared I shall not affirm, for I do not know. I believe that any effort is better than no effort...
Mr. HOWARD. I shall vote for the bill ; that is, for the principle of the bill, for it is one which I favor; but I do think there is great weight in what the Senator from California has said with regard to making it a department. I think the word "department'' as it is used in this bill, is rather an unconstitutional application of the word. What does the Constitution contemplate as a department of the Government? Its language is quite plain on that subject.
...Mr. NORTON. Understanding this bill as I do, that it is merely for the purpose of establishing here at the seat of Government, a bureau to disseminate information generally through-out the country regard to education, I shall vote for it ; but if I understood...that it will lead to the establishment of bureau or department here which, under the direction of Congress, shall have control of the school systems of the various States and shall regulate those systems, I should certainty oppose it.
I believe that the cause of education in the various States is best promoted by being exclusively under the direction of the States, and that each State should have the exclusive management and direction of its school funds and the disposition of all grants made by Congress for the establishment and maintenance and support of schools within its limits.
...Mr. DAVIS. When this measure was first introduced, I hardly thought that its patrons were serious in urging it. It seems to me to be more of a device to create officers and patronage and make drafts on the Treasury than anything else. Instead of increasing the bureaus in the Departments, I would be willing to discontinue about half a dozen of them. I think there are a great deal to many already.
Trumbull made a clarification:
I desire to say a word only, as I seem to have been misunderstood by Senators in some remarks that I made as to what nation had done for the education of the children of the land. They seem to suppose that this is a bill to take the subject entirely out of the control of the States. It is not so by any means. It is merely, as my my colleague remarked, to establish a center fur the dissemination of information among the States as to improvements in the way of building school-houses, in methods of imparting education, and giving a history of the disposition of the vast amount of property which the nation has donated for purposes education.
A couple days later, there was still some minor resistance ("meh, don't think it will help enough, and keep DC bureaucrats out of our schools"), some patient re-explaining ("duh, were you not listening to Trumbull t'other day?"), and finally:
Mr. SAULSBURY. I shall vote against this bill for a different reason from any which has been assigned. In my judgment, Congress has no constitutional authority to enact such a measure as this ; and leaving out of consideration all questions of expediency or propriety, I should place my opposition on the ground of want of constitutional authority in Congress to pass it.
The bill was ordered to a third reading, read the third time, and passed.
LOL, "I've heard nothing anybody's said about what this bill actually is, but it's unconstitutional for uh,...reasons, so I am agin it" and then a big "whatever dude." So there it was, a Department, but not Cabinet-level until Jimmy Carter made it so (after a long and winding road in between).
And now we're here, with MAGA trying to do what Reagan promised more than 40 years ago. Still fighting strawmen, convincing the rubes that Dark Brandon is forcing CRT and drag shows into our schools. Same as it ever was...
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