Be able to differentiate educational roles of each level of the

government
Identify legislation and programs offered by the federal
government...
Be able to define the major roles the state play in the school
system...
Be able to understand the goals of the local government...
Federal
The federal government sets up departments, advisory
committees and programs (such as the We the People Program)
to ensure the state and local agencies follow the basic human
rights for all citizens by implementing civil rights amendments
and programs that endorse good citizenship. The departments
also serve to allocate funds and ensure a good development of
students and curriculum. Originally, the federal government's
main use was land grants for states to develop colleges and
universities. As world competition soared after and during the
world wars of the 20th century, the U.S. government started to
help with education assistance ( Wiki's GI Bill website) for
returning veterans; and then later, the National Defense
department in 1958 set up allocations to help potential
students better in all core areas like math and science (click
here to find out more about the National Science Foundation).
"In the State of the Union Address on January 31, 2006, United
States President George W. Bush announced the American
Competitiveness Initiative. Bush proposed the initiative to
address shortfalls in federal government support of educational
development and progress at all academic levels in the STEM
fields" (STEM 2008).
The federal government also sets up a great resource tool for
teachers. The Federal Resource for Educational Excellence
(FREE) allows teachers to utilize the internet for classroom
resources for all subjects and levels from the National Science
Foundation and other federally funded programs like the
Endowment for Humanities, National Park Service, Library of
Congress, Smithsonian Institution, National Institutes of Health,
and even the Labor Department among others.

Although the federal government has no constitutional role in

education because of the 10th amendment, and no mention in
the document pertaining to the federal role, in 2003, the
Secretary of Education released the revision of the
"constitutionally protected prayer" in public schools (originally
from the Elementary and Secondary Act) and mandated by the
No Child Left behind Act of 2001 (ASCD, 2003) (Findlaw 2008).
The voucher system gives parents an option for their child's
education through the faith-based initiatives issued by the
white house in 2002 to "create a level playing field for faith and
community based organizations to compete for USAID
programs" (USAID). The executive branch has implemented
National Charter Week for a week in May starting this year,
2008.
Giving options and opportunities to parents and students is the
underlying theme in the federal's role in the educational
system. They have the power to make changes and institute
ideas that help students benefit more from the national
educational system. The federal government's role in education
also plays a socio-economic role on a national level because
most of these changes dealt with funding and civil rights and a
lot of controversy build awareness for some these issues.

The Federal Role in Education

Overview
Education is primarily a State and local responsibility in the United States. It is States and
communities, as well as public and private organizations of all kinds, that establish schools and
colleges, develop curricula, and determine requirements for enrollment and graduation. The
structure of education finance in America reflects this predominant State and local role. Of an
estimated $1.15 trillion being spent nationwide on education at all levels for school year 2012-2013,
a substantial majority will come from State, local, and private sources. This is especially true at the
elementary and secondary level, where about 92 percent of the funds will come from non-Federal
sources.
That means the Federal contribution to elementary and secondary education is about 8 percent,
which includes funds not only from the Department of Education (ED) but also from other Federal
agencies, such as the Department of Health and Human Services' Head Start program and the
Department of Agriculture's School Lunch program.
Although ED's share of total education funding in the U.S. is relatively small, ED works hard to get a
big bang for its taxpayer-provided bucks by targeting its funds where they can do the most good.
This targeting reflects the historical development of the Federal role in education as a kind of
"emergency response system," a means of filling gaps in State and local support for education when
critical national needs arise.

History
The original Department of Education was created in 1867 to collect information on schools and
teaching that would help the States establish effective school systems. While the agency's name and
location within the Executive Branch have changed over the past 130 years, this early emphasis on
getting information on what works in education to teachers and education policymakers continues
down to the present day.
The passage of the Second Morrill Act in 1890 gave the then-named Office of Education
responsibility for administering support for the original system of land-grant colleges and universities.
Vocational education became the next major area of Federal aid to schools, with the 1917 Smith-
Hughes Act and the 1946 George-Barden Act focusing on agricultural, industrial, and home
economics training for high school students.
World War II led to a significant expansion of Federal support for education. The Lanham Act in
1941 and the Impact Aid laws of 1950 eased the burden on communities affected by the presence of
military and other Federal installations by making payments to school districts. And in 1944, the "GI
Bill" authorized postsecondary education assistance that would ultimately send nearly 8 million
World War II veterans to college.
The Cold War stimulated the first example of comprehensive Federal education legislation, when in
1958 Congress passed the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) in response to the Soviet
launch of Sputnik. To help ensure that highly trained individuals would be available to help America
compete with the Soviet Union in scientific and technical fields, the NDEA included support for loans
to college students, the improvement of science, mathematics, and foreign language instruction in
elementary and secondary schools, graduate fellowships, foreign language and area studies, and
vocational-technical training.
The anti-poverty and civil rights laws of the 1960s and 1970s brought about a dramatic emergence
of the Department's equal access mission. The passage of laws such as Title VI of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation
Act of 1973 which prohibited discrimination based on race, sex, and disability, respectively made
civil rights enforcement a fundamental and long-lasting focus of the Department of Education. In
1965, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act launched a comprehensive set of programs,
including the Title I program of Federal aid to disadvantaged children to address the problems of
poor urban and rural areas. And in that same year, the Higher Education Act authorized assistance
for postsecondary education, including financial aid programs for needy college students.
In 1980, Congress established the Department of Education as a Cabinet level agency. Today, ED
operates programs that touch on every area and level of education. The Department's elementary
and secondary programs annually serve nearly 18,200 school districts and over 50 million students
attending roughly 98,000 public schools and 32,000 private schools. Department programs also
provide grant, loan, and work-study assistance to more than 12 million postsecondary students.

Mission
Despite the growth of the Federal role in education, the Department never strayed far from what
would become its official mission: to promote student achievement and preparation for global
competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.
The Department carries out its mission in two major ways. First, the Secretary and the Department
play a leadership role in the ongoing national dialogue over how to improve the results of our
education system for all students. This involves such activities as raising national and community
awareness of the education challenges confronting the Nation, disseminating the latest discoveries
on what works in teaching and learning, and helping communities work out solutions to difficult
educational issues.
Second, the Department pursues its twin goals of access and excellence through the administration
of programs that cover every area of education and range from preschool education through
postdoctoral research. For more information on the Department's programs see the President's FY
2022 Budget Request for Education.

Staffing
One final note: while ED's programs and responsibilities have grown substantially over the years, the
Department itself has not. In fact, the Department has the smallest staff of the 15 Cabinet agencies,
even though its discretionary budget alone is the third largest, behind only the Department of
Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services. In addition, the Department provides
over $150 billion in new and consolidated loans annually.

Five Government Aid

Programs To Help Schools
By The Editorial Team
Primary and secondary school districts provide American school children with the
education they require to grow up as responsible adults and obtain degrees for their
professional careers. Funding for the schools mostly comes from several state and local
governments, although the federal government is slowly starting to provide aid for
schools to prevent budget-related cuts of important educational classes and programs.

Government aid for school

More than $40 billion in government funding will go toward elementary and secondary
schools to help create and sustain programs, provide meals for students, prepare
children to attend school, and other functions or activities, according to the New
America Foundation. Most government funding is given to the Department of Education,
which oversees the appropriation of funds through grants and other types of aid. In
addition, other government agencies administer funding directly to schools.

With government agencies overseeing the distribution of funds, this ensures that the
schools are putting the money toward the educational programs and services offered
and not having the money go toward salaries and bonuses for school personnel. Below,
you will find a list of five ways that the U.S. government provides aid to schools.

National School Lunch Program

Halfway through a typical school day, children receive school meals for lunch as a break
from classes and to receive a filling meal that will help them concentrate on
assignments for the rest of the school day. The federal government, through the United
States Department of Agriculture, provides the National School Lunch Program to all
types of public and private schools so that children are receiving a nutritious lunch that
is low-cost or free for the students to have every day. Close to $18 million has been
given toward the program in 2011 to assist schools.

No Child Left Behind Title I Grants

Low-income families and students who attend elementary and secondary schools can
be reassured that they are receiving the same high-quality education as schools for the
middle class and upper class due to the No Child Left Behind Title I Grants. This grant
program provides funding for school districts in low-income areas to ensure that the
education curriculum meets state academic standards. Funding from this program must
go toward students who are failing the core subjects or are at risk of failing as schools
can provide enrichment programs.

Head Start Program

Enrolled schoolchildren and children about to be admitted to school can receive extra
education to prepare them for school classes. The federally funded Head Start
Program is another type of government aid for schools that focuses on increasing the
education awareness of students from low-income families. Through the program,
students can learn language, literacy, general knowledge, and approaches to learning.
An average of $7.6 million had been given to this program during 2011 through the
Department of Health and Human Services.

IDEA Special Education Grants

Children with disabilities need to have the same high quality education as students who
do not have any physical, mental or emotional problems. Authorized by the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act, Special Education Grants are available for schools and
other educational agencies to provide free program courses to disabled children to
properly prepare them for higher education and independent living. More than $11.5
billion in grant funding had been provided during the 2011 fiscal year.

YouthBuild Program
Some types of government aid for schools is targeted toward older students to give
them special skills that can be used during their professional careers and for the rest of
their lives. The YouthBuild Program targets students 16 years of age up to the age of 24
to help them develop leadership skills and community service awareness. These
students learn to build affordable housing as they earn their high school diploma or
GED. The Department of Labor supports this program and has given up to $1 billion
toward the program in 2011.
Government contributions to
schools
Even though the government only contributes about 10 percent in direct funding to
schools, this funding has provided much-needed aid to schools to help students achieve
their best academically. It has helped students stay in school and seek out their future
careers
Mandate, Powers and Functions
MANDATE

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) shall be the

primary policy, planning, coordinating, implementing, and administrative entity of the
Executive Branch of the government that will plan, develop, and promote the national
ICT development agenda. (RA 10844)

POWERS AND FUNCTIONS

I. Policy and Planning

(a) Formulate, recommend and implement national policies, plans, programs and
guidelines that will promote the development and use of ICT with due consideration to
the advantages of convergence and emerging technologies;

(b) Formulate policies and initiatives, in coordination with the Department of Education
(DepED), the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and the Technical Education
and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), to develop and promote ICT in education
consistent with the national goals and objectives, and responsive to the human resource
needs of the ICT and ICT-enabled services (ICT-ES) sectors;

(c) Provide an integrated framework in order to optimize all government ICT resources
and networks for the identification and prioritization of all E-Government systems and
applications as provided for the E-Government Masterplan and the Philippine
Development Plan (PDP);

II. Improved Public Access

(d) Prescribe rules and regulations for the establishment, operation and maintenance of
ICT infrastructures in unserved and underserved areas, in consultation with the local
government units (LGUs), civil society organizations (CSOs), private sector, and the
academe;

(e) Establish a free internet service that can be accessed in government offices and
public areas using the most cost-effective telecommunications technology, through
partnership with private service providers as may be necessary;
 

III. Resource-sharing and Capacity Building

(f) Harmonize and coordinate all national ICT plans and initiatives to ensure knowledge,
information and resource-sharing, database-building and agency networking linkages
among government agencies, consistent with E-Government objectives in particular,
and national objectives in general;

(g) Ensure the development and protection of integrated government ICT infrastructures
and designs, taking into consideration the inventory of existing manpower, plans,
programs, software, hardware, and installed systems;

(h) Assist and provide technical expertise to government agencies in the development
of guidelines in the enforcement and administration of laws, standards, rules, and
regulations governing ICT;

(i) Assess, review and support ICT research and development programs of the
government in coordination with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST)
and other institutions concerned;

(j) Prescribe the personnel qualifications and other qualification standards essential to
the effective development and operation of government ICT infrastructures and
systems;

(k) Develop programs that would enhance the career advancement opportunities of ICT
workers in government;

(l) Assist in the dissemination of vital information essential to disaster risk reduction
through the use of ICT;

(m) Represent and negotiate for Philippine interest on matters pertaining to ICT in
international bodies, in coordination with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and
other institutions concerned;

IV. Consumer Protection and Industry Development

(n) Ensure and protect the rights and welfare of consumers and business users to
privacy, security and confidentiality in matters relating to ICT, in coordination with
agencies concerned, the private sector and relevant international bodies;

(o) Support the promotion of trade and investment opportunities in the ICT and ICT-ES
sectors, in coordination with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI_ and other
relevant government agencies and the private sector;
(p) Establish guidelines for public-private partnerships in the implementation of ICT
projects for government agencies;

(q) Promote strategic partnerships and alliances between and among local and
international ICT , research and development, educational and training institutions to
speed up industry growth and enhance competitiveness of Philippine workers, firms,
and small and medium enterprises in the global markets for ICT and ICT-ES;

V. Cybersecurity Policy and Program Coordination

(r) To formulate a national cybersecurity plan consisting of robust and coherent

strategies that would minimize national security risks in order to promote a peaceful,
secure, open and cooperative ICT environment;

(s) To extend immediate assistance for the suppression of real-time commission of

cybercrime offenses and cyber-attacks against critical infrastructures and/or affecting
national security through a computer emergency response team (CERT);

(t) To provide pro-active government countermeasures to address and anticipate all

domestic and transnational incidents affecting the Philippine cyberspace and any
cybersecurity threats to the country;

(u) To enhance the public-private partnership in the field of information sharing involving
cyber-attacks, threats and vulnerabilities, and to coordinate in the preparation of
appropriate and effective measures to prevent and suppress cybercrime as provided in
R.A. No. 10175

(v) To monitor cybercrime cases being handled by participating law and prosecution
agencies, and to facilitate international cooperation on intelligence, investigations,
training and capacity building related to cybercrime prevention, suppression, and
prosecution;

(w) To coordinate the support participation of the business sector, local government
units and nongovernment organizations in cybercrime prevention programs and other
related projects;

(x) To recommend the enactment of appropriate laws, issuances, measures and

policies;

(y) To call upon any government agency to render assistance in the accomplishment of
the Department’s mandated tasks and functions;
(z) To perform all other matters related to cybercrime prevention and suppression
including capacity building and such other functions and duties as may be necessary for
the proper implementation of R.A. No. 10175;

VI. Countryside Development

(aa) Formulate policies in consultation with local government units and other local
stakeholders and line agencies for the implementation of responsive, relevant and
comprehensive ICT-related strategies to improve the competitiveness of provincial
locations for ICT and ICT-ES industry in order to develop balanced investments
between high-growth and economically-depressed areas and to promote the
development and widespread use of ICT;

(bb) Develop plans and programs in coordination with LGUs and other local
stakeholders and line agencies to ensure that universal access to ICT services and
infrastructure are effectively utilized to generate investments and opportunities in the
rural area or areas unserved by private sector;

(cc) Assist, guide and support ICT-related activities and initiatives for countryside
economic development; and

(dd) Promote and assist LGUs and local stakeholders in developing specialized ICT-
enabled investments areas by providing technical and industry-calibrated assistance in
the use of ICT for the enhancement of key public services, development and promotion
of local arts and culture, tourism, digital literacy, and talent development.

Please click here to download a copy of the DICT’s Mandate, Powers and Functions.