More than a third of the federal education research budget — estimated at $289 million — could go unspent this year, according to an analysis by an advocacy group.
The Knowledge Alliance, which represents 20 private research organizations, including federal contractors, analyzed public documents from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) detailing how much the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has spent or plans to spend of the $768 million that Congress appropriated for fiscal year 2025. The group estimates that $289 million will go unspent and is at risk of expiring when the current fiscal year ends on September 30.
“We are very concerned that funding is not on track,” said Rachel Dinkes, president of the Knowledge Alliance. “Everyone should be asking questions of this administration about how they plan to commit this money before it runs out.” Unspent federal funds cannot be rolled over or used for future projects and generally revert to the U.S. Treasury.
The Alliance is trying to turn up the pressure and argue that permanently losing these funds would limit guidance to schools about what works in education, reduce federal support for addressing educational problems such as truancy, and make it harder for states to comply with federal requirements that use data, research and assessments.
The advocacy group pointed to the virtual shutdown of special education research under the Trump administration. About 85 percent of the $77 million for special education remains unspent and there are no federal notices or documents, as there usually would be, detailing plans to launch grant competitions and spend them. More than half of the funds for other education research ($136 million) and 40 percent of the funding for statistics ($49 million) are also at risk of expiring, according to the Knowledge Alliance’s calculations, which it says are based on publicly available documents from the OMB, which controls the release of federal funds and updates the search spending plans.
The OMB did not respond to my inquiry regarding the Knowledge Alliance’s analysis or the administration’s plans to spend funds on education research. In an email, a Department for Education spokesperson said: “The Department is committed to using appropriate funds to meet our statutory obligations and support high quality research. » However, according to education researchers, there are no ongoing grant competitions or active evaluation committees to make this happen. Last year, DOGE ended the contract for hiring peer reviewers who review research proposals.
Not all areas of IES have large, unspent budgets. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, a federal exam that measures student achievement, is $13 million over budget, including spending by its oversight board. The Knowledge Alliance did not explain the overspending.
According to three researchers familiar with federal grantmaking, OMB poses a barrier. The agency refuses to approve funds appropriated by Congress and that approval is a prerequisite for proceeding with education grants, said the researchers, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation and undermining delicate negotiations between the Department of Education and OMB.
The OMB also froze research funding at the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, but in some cases reverse course after public pressure. The Government Accountability Office, Congress’s watchdog agency, has repeatedly found that the Trump administration has violated the Impound Control Actwhich requires the executive branch to spend funds in accordance with appropriations laws.
Impoundment is not yet a problem at the IES. There are still five months to develop new research plans and award grants to spend that money for fiscal year 2025, but that would require an expedited process. In the past, IES would announce a new grant competition for specific research areas, and then applicants would have a few months to develop and submit proposals. Two peer reviewers read the submissions, then an evaluation committee selects the winners. This process typically takes between six and 10 months, according to Dinkes.
That long delay is one reason Congress is giving IES two full years to spend its annual budget, which is unusual in the federal government. The $289 million in unspent FY 2025 funds that are currently in play were first appropriated in October 2024, before the election of President Donald Trump. Congress appropriated an additional $790 million for the IES in fiscal year 2026. These funds do not expire until September 2027. Spending of these funds for 2026 is also well behind schedule, with no funds for research or statistics yet approved by OMB.
Annual research funds are not only used to finance new research projects, but also to compensate researchers for continuing ongoing multi-year studies. Last year, IES was unable to pay researchers on time due to delays at OMB, but the money was finally released in September, the researchers told me. This is once again a concern this year.
With so much money at stake, members of Congress are putting pressure on OMB and urging researchers to apply pressure, too. It’s another example of a clash between Congress and the administration, one with implications for students nationwide.
IES funds are set to expire on September 30, 2026
the gap between the blue and orange bars corresponds to the amount of financing at risk. Source: Table 1, Knowledge Alliance memorandum, April 2026
IES funds are set to expire on September 30, 2027
the gap between the blue and orange bars corresponds to the amount of financing at risk. Source: Table 1, Knowledge Alliance memorandum, April 2026
Contact staffwriter Jill Barshay at 212-678-3595, jillbarshay.35 on Signal or barshay@hechingerreport.org.
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