11. Department of Education · Notable · Needs Congress

Eliminate the Department of Education's competitive grant programs

Attempted

Printed page 360 11. Department of Education

“Eliminate competitive grant programs and reduce spending on formula grant programs. Competitive grant programs operated by the Department of Education should be eliminated, and federal spending should be reduced to reflect remaining formula grant programs authorized under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the handful of other programs that do not fall under the competitive/project grant category.”

What has happened

Apr 3, 2026 Attempted
The FY2027 Budget repeats and enlarges the request: "the consolidation or elimination of over two dozen elementary and secondary education grant programs", seventeen worth $6.5 billion consolidated into MEGA grants and twelve worth $2.1 billion eliminated, plus $2.7 billion of higher-education eliminations. Congress refused: the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026, enacted 2026-02-03, funded the Department's competitive grant accounts in the ordinary way, and the Department has gone on running competitions all year (charter schools, education innovation and research, mental health, GEAR UP). Held at `attempted` rather than `partial` for the same reason #803 is: the executive actions route around the statutes without eliminating them.
- Budget of the U.S. Government, Fiscal Year 2027 — Department of Education chapter, Program Cuts and Eliminations
  Primary Executive branch Apr 3, 2026
- Public Law 119-75, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 — Department of Education appropriations
  Primary Congress Feb 3, 2026
May 2, 2025 Attempted
The FY2026 Discretionary Budget Request asked Congress to fold "18 competitive and formula grant programs into a new $2 billion formula grant" — the K-12 Simplified Funding Program — cutting $4.535 billion while preserving Title I, and to consolidate seven IDEA programs the same way. A Budget request is a formal administration request and so `attempted` (playbook §3b).
- Fiscal Year 2026 Discretionary Budget Request — Department of Education, Preserve Title I and Streamline K-12 Programs
  Primary Executive branch May 2, 2025

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

Individual competitive programs the Department has stopped funding without a statute: ten Regional Educational Laboratory contracts and four Equity Assistance Center grants canceled 2025-02-13 (over $350 million), Comprehensive Centers grants canceled, more than $600 million of teacher-training grants cut, and Minority-Serving Institution discretionary programs ended on 2025-09-10 by reprogramming the funds. The Department proposed rescinding the Equity Assistance Center regulations on 2026-06-25 (FR 2026-12861) — proposed, not final.
Boundary: those cancellations could be read as “rescinding the regulations that actually embody the thing the ask targets”, which would make this partial. Reprogramming a year’s discretionary funds is not elimination, the programs remain authorized and appropriated, and the call taken here follows #803 for consistency.

Action: eliminate
Object: Department of Education competitive grant programs
ID: 918