has been seen as mainly the responsibility of local
communities, with some support from the states. In
the wake of World War II and the G.I. Bill, the fed-
eral government began to become more active in
educational policy and funding, and in 1953, the
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
became a cabinet-level department of the govern-
ment’s executive branch. By the end of the 1970’s,
federal educational policy had become such a prior-
ity that Congress decided to create a department de-
voted solely to education. Signed into law by Presi-
dent Jimmy Carter in October, 1979, Congress’s act
split the Department of Health, Education, and Wel-
fare into two new departments: the Department of
Health and Human Services and the Department
of Education. The Education Department began
operating in May, 1980, under the leadership of Sec-
retary Shirley Hufstedler, appointed by President
Carter.
President Ronald Reagan inherited the Depart-
ment of Education when he took office in 1981. The
Republican president had opposed what he and
many others in his party saw as excessive federal in-
tervention in local affairs, and President Reagan
suggested that he would abolish the new depart-
ment. When Reagan appointed Terrell Bell as the
new Secretary of Education in 1981, it was widely ex-
pected that Bell would simply oversee the depart-
ment’s destruction.
Democrats, however, still controlled the House of
Representatives throughout the 1980’s, and to abol-
ish a cabinet-level department requires an act of
Congress. Partly as a result, the Department of Edu-
cation survived the decade. The federal government
did spend less money on education during the two
Republican administrations of the 1980’s. The real
value of federal spending on education declined
slightly between 1980, when the government spent
$78.4 billion in 1999 dollars, and 1989, when it spent
$77.5 billion in 1999 dollars. Budgeted spending on
elementary and secondary education decreased dur-
ing that period from $31.9 billion to $25.8 billion in
1999 dollars. Budgeted spending on postsecondary
education decreased by an even greater percentage,
from $22.2 billion to $17.3 billion, again in 1999 dol-
lars.
In 1985, President Reagan appointed a successor
to Bell, William Bennett, who served as secretary of
education until 1988. A social conservative, Secretary
Bennett opposed many of the forms of multicultural
education that had spread through U.S. schools, and
he argued in favor of curricula rooted in the classics
of Western civilization. Bennett also encouraged the
teaching of moral principles, and he tried to convince
American colleges to control drug use on campuses.
Lauro F. Cavazos followed Bennett as secretary of ed-
ucation. Appointed by President Reagan in 1988, he
continued to serve into the administration of Presi-
dent George H. W. Bush. Secretary Cavazos, the first
Hispanic appointed to a cabinet post, was forced to re-
sign in 1990 as a result of an investigation into his al-
leged improper use of frequent flier miles.A Nation at Risk Although Terrell Bell had been
expected to direct the dismantling of the Depart-
ment of Education, his term of office saw a major
new initiative in federal educational policy. In 1981,
Bell convinced President Reagan to appointment a
commission to study the quality and shortcomings
of the American educational system. The National
Commission on Excellence in Education published
its findings asA Nation at Riskin 1983. This influen-
tial and widely cited volume maintained that the
educational foundations of the nation were being
eroded by mediocrity.A Nation at Riskstressed that if
the American economy was to function in the infor-
mation age, the workforce needed a basic educa-
tion. The report further emphasized that a high,
shared level of education was necessary for realizing
American social and political ideals, and it expressed
a commitment to enabling all Americans from all
backgrounds fully to develop their abilities through
schooling. It argued that all students should concen-
trate on the academic “basics” and that schools
should ensure demonstrable mastery of these basics.
Among other recommendations, the report sug-
gested that all high school students receive four
years of instruction in English, three years in mathe-
matics, three years in science, three years in social
science, and one-half year in computer science.
During the rest of the decade, many states began
to implement some of the recommendations put
forward inA Nation at Risk, including more rigorous
student assessment programs and graduation exit
examinations. In response to the report’s recom-
mendations for higher education, many universities
also began raising entrance requirements and de-
manding that college applicants follow the strict
state high school curriculum recommended by the
report.The Eighties in America Education in the United States 313