Pressure mounts for Education Department to release research funds

Dive Brief:

• The U.S. Department of Education is under pressure from college and K-12 groups, as well as a bipartisan group of U.S. senators to release nearly $300 million in funding for education research.
• The two separate coalitions sent letters to the U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon this month, calling for the Education Department to disperse unallocated money for the agency’s Institute of Education Sciences from fiscal years 2025 and 2026. The FY25 funds will expire after Sept. 30 if not allocated, the letters said.
• The Education Department, under the Trump administration, has been downsizing the agency and providing states with more spending discretion. Still, a department spokesperson told K-12 Dive on Thursday that it is “committed to using appropriated funds to meet our statutory obligations while supporting high-quality research.”

Dive Insight:

IES, the Education Department’s research arm, collects and analyzes college and K-12 data and distributes grants for research programs to help improve learning. One major activity under this office includes collecting, analyzing and maintaining education assessment data for the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card. 

In a May 11 letter, a bipartisan group of 19 U.S. senators, including Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said the Education Department received $793 million in FY25 and $789.6 million in FY26 for IES activities and there was a remaining balance of about $290 million that would lapse Sept. 30. IES allocations can be used over a two-year period, the senators’ letter said.

A lack of spending at IES has led to “the sharp decline of special education research and data gathering,” according to a statement from Merkley. 

The senators criticized what they said are the closeouts of hundreds of unreviewed IES FY25 grant proposals within the National Center for Education Research and the National Center for Special Education Research. “This resulted in no new awards being made over the past year, and these awards are crucial to addressing urgent educational challenges facing students,” the letter said.

Findings from NCER-funded research have led to the development of literacy programs and practices in schools nationwide that states are scaling up to improve reading achievement. NCSER research has supported educational programs that have “decreased high levels of anxiety in youth with autism, taught reading to individuals with Down Syndrome, and assisted students with learning disabilities in the mastery of mathematical word problems,” the senators wrote.

In a May 18 letter to McMahon and Russell Vought, director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, the 97 K-12 and college advocacy organizations stressed the urgency to release the remaining IES funds. The coalition letter’s signees also included the Knowledge Alliance, the American Educational Research Association and the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

“These are not abstract losses, but real gaps in knowledge, support, and progress for students, teachers, and schools in every state,” the letter said. “Put simply, if funding lapses, students and families will pay the price.” 

In their letters, both the senators and the coalition of organizations asked the Education Department and OMB to work together to release the FY25 monies. 

The senators also said they were concerned about downsizing in the IES office. The institute’s workforce was reduced from 187 employees to 30 between January 2025 and February of this year, the letter said. At IES’ National Center for Education Statistics, the staffing level dropped from about 100 to 11.

“These reductions in staff have directly contributed to significantly fewer research, data, and evidence-use products being published by IES,” the senators said. 

A lawsuit filed last year by the American Educational Research Association and the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness challenging the funding and staffing cuts at IES is ongoing. 

In February, an internal Education Department document made recommendations to reform IES, including “a thorough review” of data collections and the consideration of discontinuing data collections “as warranted.” 

The Education Department did not provide a status update on potential changes at IES when asked on Thursday.

For FY27, the Trump administration is recommending funding for IES at $261.3 million, or about $531.8 million less than the FY25 level. The proposal also asks for 75 staff for IES program administration, down from 111 in FY25.