Education department

I just looked through the news: resignation of four members of Cabinet. I got curious about different departments in US government, their history and duties. Something was very stunishing about the history of some departments. There were lots of departments that were made or splitted in the Carter's period, less than 30 years ago. And including them was the Education department. No wonder why pre-academic education in the US is very poor, especially math and sceince. Is it really healthy in a long run for a country?!