The US government has fifteen cabinet-level agencies dealing with topics from agriculture to foreign affairs, however there is one specific agency that spends billions of dollars a year that may or may not be necessary. The U.S. Department of Education is one agency that could be downplayed. The U.S. Department of Education should be minimized, and state and local departments should be responsible for their own education policies. In 1867, the original Department of Education was created to gather information about schools and teaching that would help states create effective and competitive systems. school systems. At the time the DOE was called the Office of Education and had no official place in the executive branch. The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has officially been in existence since 1971, when President Jimmy Carter signed into law the creation of the DOE as a Cabinet-level agency. Two years later, when President Ronald Reagan took office, he planned to immediately abolish the DOE because he believed that the federal government was meddling too much and that state and local governments should control education (Genovese 164). However, in 1983 the DOE published A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Education Reform which criticized the American public education system. President Reagan was alarmed by this report and decided to keep the DOE because he saw it as a weakness if our education system produced citizens unable to contribute positively to our economy (Genovese 165). Since that year, most Republican presidential candidates have considered abolishing the DOE until recently. The main contenders for the Republican presidential candidate...... middle of the document ......011."DESE mission." Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Government of Missouri. Network. 02 December 2011."Federal role in education." US Department of Education. United States Government. Network. November 27, 2011."Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Summary and General Information." Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Summary: Table of Contents. U.S. Department of Education, March 31, 2011. Web. November 27, 2011. Genovese, Michael A. Encyclopedia of the American Presidency. New York: Facts on File, 2010. Print.NeSA Testing Brochure. Nebraska Department of Education. Network. December 1, 2011. “No Child Left Behind (NCLB).” GreatSchools: Public and private school ratings, reviews, and parent community. Network. 02 December 2011. "Title I, part A of the program." US Department of Education. United States Government. Network. 01 December 2011.USAJOBS - Job Search. United States Government. Network. 01 December. 2011.