Statement on a Separate Department of Education before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs

Al Shanker offers his opinion on the proposed creation of a separate, cabinet-level Department of Education. Shanker asserts that such a Department would not really help; rather he argues that it will create too much governmental intrusion into educational administration, a matter which had been decided by individual states, localities, universities, and school systems. Additionally he states that the programs of the current Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) are so interrelated that splitting them would have negative consequences. Shanker offers alternatives to the creation of a separate Department that include consolidation of high level positions within HEW that deal with education, separating the research division, giving certain programs within HEW to the education unit to manage, and upgrading an interagency authority on education to negotiate with other federal agencies for educational initiatives.

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