QUESTIONS:
1. The U.S. Department of Education was created by Congress in 1979 at the urging of then-President Jimmy Carter. What other Cabinet-level department was created during the Carter years (excluding the redesignated Health and Human Services Department)?
2. Who was the first secretary of education?
3. Two former governors have gone on to serve as secretary of education. Can you name them?
4. What secretary of education went on to win elective office after leaving his Cabinet position?
5. When the House voted 210 to 206 to create the Department of Education, among the members voting were then-Republican Representatives. Jack Kemp (N.Y.) and Newt Gingrich (Ga.), and then-Democratic Rep. Phil Gramm (Tex.). Can you tell how each voted on creating the new-Cabinet level department?
ANSWERS:
1. The Department of Energy
2. Shirley Hufstedler, who served from 1979-81
3. Former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander, secretary from 1989-92, and former South Carolina Gov. Richard Riley, secretary from 1992-2000.
4. Alexander, elected Republican senator from Tennessee in ’02.
5. All three voted to create the new department.
