The Trump administration, through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has canceled nearly $900 million in contracts under the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the agency responsible for education research and national data collection. [The Associated Press]
Why it matters: IES has historically played a role in tracking long-term education trends, from student achievement and graduation rates to school safety and teacher shortages that can play a role in informing decisions of policy and practice. Some argue that eliminating these contracts will leave gaps in understanding how students are learning, while others see it as a necessary reset of federal spending priorities. [The 74]
What They’re Saying
- DOGE officials say the cuts eliminate unnecessary spending and make government operations more efficient. [Fox News]
- Mark Schneider, former IES director who served under the first Trump administration and through part of the Biden administration, sees the move as an opportunity to develop faster and more precise data and research but questions what comes next: “All this breakage is in some ways essential. The question is, what happens next? […] It’s a lot more bound up than just these discrete things unrelated to one another. That’s the problem with moving fast and breaking things without understanding that if you break X, you’re actually breaking Y and Z.” [Education Week]
- Critics argue the decision disrupts critical research. Taylor Odle, an education policy professor, told Inside Higher Ed that this is “an assault on the U.S.’s education data infrastructure” and that “at some point in their career, every education researcher in the United States has leveraged a product produced by the U.S. Department of Education or IES.”
What’s next: The Trump administration is expected to continue reviewing Education Department contracts and grants, with additional cuts likely. While some of the terminated contracts may eventually be rebid, the timeline remains unclear.
