K-12 Education: Education’s Priorities in Discretionary Grantmaking

What GAO Found

Education sometimes establishes department-wide or program-specific priorities to guide the process for awarding discretionary grants. Fulfilling a priority may be a required or an optional condition to receive the grant.

• Education announced department-wide priorities 15 times between November 2001 and December 2021. Some priorities replace previous ones, so not all department-wide priorities are still in use. Priorities covered various topics, such as improving teacher professional development and increasing high school graduation rates.

Figure: Timeline of Education's Announcements for Department-Wide Priorities

Note: The Department of Education published department-wide priorities two times in both 2014 and 2020. In December 2010, Education announced department-wide priorities and then issued a technical correction of those priorities in May 2011. We are only including the May 2011 version in our analysis because it includes the technical corrections. We also included announcements that amended Education's grant regulations that Education considered to be department-wide priorities.

• Among the three largest discretionary grant programs within Education’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE), the number of priorities per grant announcement ranged from zero to 10 between 2001 and 2024. Across the three programs, the following priority themes were cited most frequently: (1) serving specific populations or geographic areas to improve academic outcomes or access to charter schools; (2) promoting or improving education in science, technology, engineering, mathematics or computer science; and (3) promoting equity in student access to educational resources and opportunities.

Why GAO Did This Study

Education awarded about $6 billion in discretionary grants during fiscal year 2023, according to officials, with the largest proportion of grant programs administered by OESE. Education awards discretionary grants to recipients such as states and school districts through a competitive process.

GAO was asked to examine Education’s priorities for discretionary grants over time. This report provides information about how Education uses priorities in its discretionary grantmaking, how often Education has announced department-wide priorities since 2001, and the statutory authority Education cited when establishing department-wide priorities. It also describes how the number and themes of department-wide and program-specific priorities per grant announcement compare across the three largest OESE discretionary grant programs: (1) School Safety National Activities, (2) Education Innovation and Research, and (3) Charter Schools Program.

GAO analyzed Federal Register announcements related to Education’s department-wide and selected K-12 program-specific discretionary grantmaking priorities from 2001 (when Education first identified department-wide priorities) to 2024 (most recent year available). GAO categorized these priorities by themes, identified by using a content analysis of department-wide and program-specific priority language. GAO included all department-wide priorities as well as program-specific priorities for the three largest discretionary grant programs (and their predecessor programs) within OESE by total dollars awarded for fiscal year 2023 (the most recent year available). These programs were: the School Safety National Activities program ($216 million), the Education Innovation and Research program ($284 million), and the Charter Schools Program ($440 million). GAO’s review of these three programs is not generalizable to all of Education’s discretionary grant programs.

For more information, contact Jacqueline M. Nowicki at (202) 512-7215 or nowickij@gao.gov.