Some Senate Dems Ask GAO to Investigate ED Dismantling

"As Education Department staff working on higher education grant programs are starting to move their work to the Department of Labor, a group of mostly Senate Democrats wants a government watchdog to investigate the agreements that outsourced those programs. The Education Department first reached an agreement with Labor in May to transfer the career and technical education and learning grants."

"Among other more specifics, the senators want to know how much the agreements have cost to carry out and if the transfer disrupted funding to states or grantees. "We are deeply concerned that the administration's decisions to implement CTE and adult education grant programs in this manner delayed crucial funding that millions of students and schools rely on, created administrative inefficiencies, increased the cost of program administration, and compromised the quality of technical assistance provided to states and grantees," they wrote in a letter to GAO."

Education Department staff working on higher-education grant programs are beginning to move their work to the Department of Labor. The Education Department reached an agreement with Labor in May to transfer career and technical education and learning grants and followed in November with several agreements outsourcing administration of a dozen programs to other federal agencies. Senators led by Elizabeth Warren, joined by Bernie Sanders, Patty Murray, and Tammy Baldwin, requested a comprehensive Government Accountability Office investigation into the impacts, planning, implementation, and costs of those agreements. The senators asked GAO to determine whether transfers disrupted funding to states or grantees and to assess administrative and assistance quality effects.

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