Office of Education—1953
K–12 student performance was largely lost in the shuffle. Created in 1953, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) combined health, education, and welfare into a single agency—and within it sat the Office of Education.
Failure of the states. When John F. Kennedy took office years later, he was alarmed by the widespread failure of the states to deliver strong K–12 outcomes.
Kennedy both understood the need for state autonomy over education and recognized that the nation was suffering enormous K–12 student productivity losses. At the same time, the Office of Education remained focused on administrative responsibilities (see outline below), not on the nation’s K–12 student performance—which was already in crisis by the time Kennedy took office.
The President had to choose his battles: most of his K–12 initiatives were blocked by Congress. In that climate—and with his assassination cutting short his presidency—he never advanced a proposal to modify or replace the Office of Education with a singular, overriding focus on K–12 student performance, while avoiding federal overreach.
Responsibilities of the Office of Education (pre-1979, within HEW)
- School statistics and research
- Federal aid programs
- Vocational and higher education
- Civil rights compliance
- Educational studies
No explicit, primary, or urgent mandate (and without federal overreach) to
- Monitor and facilitate nationwide K–12 student performance
- Verify performance results
- Facilitate sustained, system-wide improvement across the states
Years later, the Department of Education replaced the Office of Education
Created in 1979, the U.S. Department of Education (herein abbreviated as the DOE) became the de facto replacement for the Office of Education, largely continuing its focus on administrative programs.
John F. Kennedy—a relentless champion of what this website terms K–12 student performance—would likely have fought to make the DOE’s preeminent, uninterrupted mission the remaking of K–12 student outcomes. All other education programs could have been housed elsewhere, either within other federal agencies or in a separate DOE annex—perhaps in a different location—with separate and unrelated leadership, and possibly under a different name, such as U.S. Education Annex (USEA).
Key code 190, 191