Tancredo was appointed in 1981 to head the regional office of the Department of Education in the Reagan administration. But it wasn't his credentials as an educator that interested Education Secretary William Bennett, but rather Tancredo's social conservatism and his belief that the federal government's involvement in education should be downsized. In his four years with the Department of Education, Tancredo shrunk the office staff in Denver from 225 to 60 employees.