Page:Annual Report- U.S. Department of Education (IA annualreportusde00unit 0).pdf/7

 1976, the act assists the more than 15 million young Americans enrolled in vocational education programs.

Although civil rights has been a federal concern since the 1860's, it was the civil rights movement of the 1950's and 1960's which awakened the national conscience to the invidious discrimination against black Americans. In 1954, the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown vs. Board of Education made desegregation of America's schools a constitutional imperative. Over the next 16 years the Congress responded with strong civil rights laws that addressed the needs not only of black Americans, but also of other groups who had suffered discrimination. The Office for Civil Rights was created to enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which forbids discrimination in federally assisted programs on the basis of race, color, and national origin. To its responsibilities were added enforcement of Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments (sex discrimination), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (rights of the handicapped), and the Age Discrimination Act of 1979 (discrimination against older persons).

Educational research and information gathering at the federal level began in 1867 when the first Commissioner was appointed to head a non-Cabinet-level Department of Education for that purpose. The Congress gave new definition to this role by creating the National Institute of Education in 1972, the National Center for Education Statistics in 1974, and the National Institute of Handicapped Research in 1978. Along with improved research and data collection has come a more sophisticated effort as dissemination. The National Diffusion Network and other programs, including Financial Assistance for Educational Television, were created by the Congress to enhance national communication on educational subjects.

Over the years other federal responsibilities were defined. To help states, local communities, and institutions improve the quality of education, the Congress established agencies like the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education and the Institute of Museum Services. Still other programs serve more than 4 million handicapped youngsters, 500,000 children of migrant workers, 60,000 refugee children, and gifted and talented students all over the country.

The kinds of federal involvement in education have changed dramatically since the land grants of 1785 because the nation has changed dramatically. From a sparsely populated agrarian country we have grown into an urbanized, industrialized, crowded nation. Where once only a handful of the elite could hope for any meaningful education, today we have more of our population in school for a longer period of time than any other country. One-room schools have given way to multiple service institutions providing wide varieties of educational service to adults as well as children.

We have created the most extensive, diverse, and pluralistic educational systems in the world. They are intricate combinations of public and private institutions, local, state, and federal. In addition to formal school settings, our educational complex includes libraries, museums, zoological and botanical gardens, research laboratories, television, and films.

So vast an educational enterprise is expensive. The United States spent in 1979-80 more than $166 billion on education, or about 7 percent of our gross national product. The federal government is a limited and very junior partner in that endeavor, contributing just 8 percent of the cost of elementary and secondary education. Nevertheless, those federal dollars are precious. They focus on important national goals of access, equity, and quality. And they serve the needs of millions of disadvantaged youngsters who would otherwise go unserved or underserved.

Creating and Organizing the Department

Because the educational enterprise is so complex, federal efforts in support of it were bound to be fairly complex as well. Still, the governmental structure for managing and directing these programs did not keep pace with their development. By 1979,