>>More funding for education is not the answer either. In the US billions of dollars are syphoned out of our school districts by the Federal gov't to fund the Department of [no]Education. This Dept does absolutely nothing to further education in this country. All it does is line the pockets of thousands of non-educators in gov't jobs. This Dept was created in the late 70s by then President Jimmy Carter as a payoff to the Teacher Unions who helped get him elected.
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>Mark - that's really misleading. As far back as I can remember, there was a department called "Health, Education and Welfare" (or HEW for short). What happened was that that department was split into two: Health and Human Services, and Education.

OK, how's this:

http://www.ed.gov/pubs/overview/whatis.html

It's modern day creation/elevation in 1979 under Carter was still as I stated above. IMNSHO, it is still a totally useless, money guzzling Department whose only impact on education is to syphon funding away from the schools. $54 billion is a terrible thing to waste.