The U.S. Office of Education has little to do with setting educational policies. Its main job is compiling bales of statistics. It also supervises the spending of federal funds by land-grant colleges and vocational schools, and sponsors an interminable round of education conferences. Its uniformly dull publications tread warily between the controversies. Most U.S. educators prefer it that way.
John Ward Studebaker, once an educator himself (superintendent of Des Moines's public schools), also prefers it that way. In 14 years as U.S. Commissioner of Education, he has stayed out of trouble with Congress...