The U.S. Department of Education (USDE) is facing pressure from K-12 and college groups, as well as a bipartisan group of U.S. senators, to release nearly $300 million in funding for education research.

In fact, both groups sent letters to U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon this month, calling for the USDE to disperse unallocated money for the agency’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) from fiscal years 2025 and 2026 and claiming that the FY25 funds will expire after September 30, 2026 if not allocated.

In a May 11 letter, a bipartisan group of 19 U.S. senators, including Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said the USDE received $793 million in FY25 and $789.6 million in FY26 for IES activities and there was a remaining balance of about $290 million that would lapse September 30th. According to Senator Merkley, a lack of spending at IES has led to “the sharp decline of special education research and data gathering,” The senators also criticized what they said are the closeouts of hundreds of unreviewed IES FY25 grant proposals within the National Center for Education Research and the National Center for Special Education Research, which resulted in no new awards being made over the past year, and these awards are crucial to addressing urgent educational challenges facing students.

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