Department of Education: The evolution of the role of the American government in education

President Andrew Johnson created the Prime Ministry of Education in 1867.

During the 19th century, public schools became more common.

In 1830, 55% of children aged 5 to 14 attended public schools, according to the “schools of the democracy of Johann N. Neem: the rise of public education in America”. In 1870, this number had increased to 78%.

At the end of the 1860s, the common school movement, which pleaded free of charge, universal and funded by the state, has grown in the north for decades, according to the Center on Education Policy. Massachusetts school reform favored universal education as a means of eliminating crime, poverty and other societal ills.

After the civil war, the abolitionists and the defenders of public education considered the northern model of universal education as one of the reasons for the victory of the Union in the war and called for its federal expansion.

In 1867, the representative of Ohio at the time, James Garfield, presented a bill to create a federal education ministry, which President Andrew Johnson then signed.

The Department would collect and analyze data detailing school conditions and performance in the United States, shared information concerning education, school systems and teaching methods and promoted education throughout the country.

“The idea was similar to what we are thinking at the moment in terms of data collection, that if we know more, we could improve schools according to this knowledge,” Business Business Business Insider Kevin G. Welner, professor of educational policy and law at the University of Colorado, told Business Business.