Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

11. Department of Education · Notable · Needs Congress

Move the National Center for Education Statistics to the Census Bureau

Not started

327 11. Department of Education

“Move ED's statistical office, the National Commission for Education Statistics (NCES), to the Department of Commerce's Census Bureau.”

What has happened

  1. Not started

    Moved the other way. The fiscal year 2027 Budget Request keeps the National Center for Education Statistics inside the Institute of Education Sciences at ED, requests $42.2 million for its Statistics account, and describes it as "one of four Centers in IES and also an Office of Management and Budget Recognized Statistical Agency" that will go on running the Common Core of Data and IPEDS. No transfer to Commerce or the Census Bureau is proposed.

  2. Not started

    The Department's own reform of the Institute of Education Sciences points away from a transfer: Secretary McMahon received the report "Reimagining the Institute of Education Sciences" on this date, which recommends a streamlined and coordinated data strategy "while preserving and strengthening its core functions" inside IES. NCES acquired an acting commissioner in 2025 and went on running NAEP, IPEDS and the Common Core of Data throughout the window.

Research log

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

Research notes

  • Negative search: Federal Register full text for “National Center for Education Statistics” together with “Census Bureau” since 2025-01-20 returns 19 documents, every one of them a routine survey or paperwork notice (the Census Bureau collects the school system finance data for NCES under a long-standing arrangement that predates the window). A search of the titles of the bills we keep and search for “Education Statistics” and “National Center for Education” returns nothing.
  • The Education Sciences Reform Act would have to be amended to move NCES, so this ask needs an act of Congress in substance even though the Mandate does not say so. That half of the ask rests on one negative search, run once for the program transfers and eliminations on pp. 325–327.
Action
transfer
Object
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
ID
823