If someone wants to take the time and effort, the budget for the department since 1980 is @ https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/history/edhistory.pdf
I’m just wondering if all those trillions spent at the local level might not have been a better idea. One of the lines to check out is “Program Administration. That’s the personnel and buildings in Washington.
Federal “Highly Qualified Teacher” mandates. Adequate Yearly Progress requirements. Smaller learning communities. Improving Teacher Quality State Grants. Reading First. Early Reading First. The dozens of other federal programs authorized via No Child Left Behind. School Improvement Grants. Race to the Top. Common Core.
All of that has been just since 2000. Over those past two decades, while federal policymakers were busy enacting new federal laws, creating mandates for local school leaders, and increasing the Department of Education’s budget from $38 billion in 2000 (unadjusted for inflation) to roughly $70 billion today, the math and reading performance of American high school students remained completely flat. That is to say, stagnant.
In other words, what have we gotten for our money?
More @ Student Test Scores Flatline Despite Decades of Feds’ Education Spending