AAUW PUBLIC POLICY CONVERSATIONS – APRIL 2025
Schools and districts across the country rely on research from the American Institute for Research, (AIR) a nonprofit that conducts research in education and other areas. As Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cost-cutting team force termination of the U.S. Department of Education, (DOE) they are cancelling numerous contracts on which Education Department staff members rely. The American Institute for Research has contracted with DOE for years, informing the entire education system at all levels about the condition of education and the distribution of students, teachers and resources in school districts across America. Responding to DOGE contract cancellations, DOE Spokesperson Dana Tong said, “This is an incredible waste of taxpayer dollars, which have been invested – per Congressional appropriations – in long-standing data collection and analysis efforts and, policy and program evaluations. The evaluation and data work that has been terminated is exactly the work that determines which programs are effective uses of federal dollars, and which are not.”
In a ProPublica February 2025 report, Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards posed questions to DOE staff about the decision to decimate the agency’s research and statistics arms, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). They were advised that the standardized test known as the nation’s report card, the national Assessment of Education Progress, would not be affected. Neither would the College Scorecard, which allows people to search for and compare information about colleges. IES is one of the country’s largest funders of education research and the slashing of contracts could mean a significant loss of public knowledge about schools. The Institute maintains a massive database of education statistics. It contracts with scientists and education companies to compile and make data public about schools each year, including information about school crime and safety, and high school science course completion. The total annual research data budget is about $815 million or roughly 1% of the Education Department’s overall budget of $82 billion this fiscal year. The $900 million in contracts the department is canceling includes multiyear agreements. According to ProPublica, the vast trove of data represents much of what we know about the state of America’s roughly 130,000 schools. Without a national repository of data and statistics, it will be harder for parents and educators to track schools or compare the achievement of students across states.
The Trump administration has repeatedly expressed a desire to “return” responsibility for schools to the states, although state and local governments already control the largest share of funding for education. There is no national curriculum. States and districts decide what to teach and dictate their own policies. DOGE wrote in a post on “X” “Today, the Department of Education terminated 89 contracts worth $881mm.” Washington Senator Patty Murray blasted the contract terminations at the Institute of Education Sciences. “An unelected billionaire is now bulldozing the research arm of the Department of Education – taking a wrecking ball to high-quality research and basic data we need to improve our public schools,” she said in a statement. “Cutting off these investments after the contract has already been inked is the definition of wasteful.”
Lawsuits filed by Public Citizen and others regarding the legality of dismantling the Department of Education continue. A temporary restraining order against what DOGE is attempting at the Department of Education was issued in mid-February. The elimination of the Education Department is a major goal of Project 2025 whose focus is eventually allocating public tax dollars to private, religiously-affiliated (primarily Christian) schools and home schools.
Lilly Gioia