The Dismantling of IES: Time for Education Philanthropy to Step Up

A Mea Culpa

In my previous blog posts about the 2024 election and its implications for education philanthropy, I confidently asserted that the Trump administration’s potential dismantling of the Department of Education was “extremely unlikely” because it would require 60 votes in the Senate. I was wrong. While formal elimination of the department may still face those hurdles, the administration has found other mechanisms to functionally hollow out the agency—using executive orders, contract cancellations, and mass layoffs to cripple operations without Congressional approval.

The speed and scale of these changes have been stunning—and not in a good way. In February, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) slashed nearly $900 million in contracts at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), eliminating 169 research projects. Then in March, the Education Department laid off more than 1,300 employees—roughly half its workforce. IES, the department’s research arm, was hit particularly hard, going from approximately 175 employees to fewer than 20. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has been reduced to just three staff members.

This is the first in a series of blog posts examining the impact of the administration’s actions and what they mean both for education in the US broadly and what philanthropists can do in response.

The Damage to Date

For those unfamiliar with IES, it has been the primary source of objective, high-quality data on American education since its creation in 2002. Its work includes:

• Administering the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), our most reliable measure of student achievement across states
• Tracking critical equity gaps in educational opportunity and outcomes
• Evaluating the effectiveness of educational interventions
• Supporting education researchers through grants and access to data

With most of its staff and contracts gone, the agency has been rendered largely non-functional. Critical longitudinal studies tracking student outcomes have been terminated mid-stream. Years of painstakingly collected data may be lost. The academic pipeline for education researchers is constricting as federal grants disappear.

Perhaps most concerning is the potential loss of standardized, national data collection. Without consistent, comparable metrics across states and districts, our ability to understand educational trends, disparities, and innovations will be severely compromised.

A Moment Calling for Action, Not Waiting

Over the last two months, I’ve spoken with numerous education funders about these developments. The most common response I’ve heard is that funders are “waiting to see how things evolve before taking action.”

I understand the impulse to wait for clarity. But this moment demands urgency. While some hold out hope that IES will be rebuilt, former IES Director Mark Schneider, who served in the first Trump administration, recently told The 74, “I have no concrete information about any plans to rebuild. I hear rumors. But until concrete plans are announced and actions are undertaken, then we should maintain a healthy skepticism.”

The evidence suggests that without external pressure and alternative solutions, critical educational research infrastructure may simply disappear.

What Can Philanthropy Do?

While foundations cannot match the scale of federal funding for education research (IES spent over $100 million annually on research), strategic philanthropic investments could help preserve essential functions:

1. Fund critical data infrastructure: Support consortia of research institutions to maintain key national datasets and ensure continuity in essential measurements.
2. Preserve research capacity: Provide bridge funding for researchers suddenly cut off from federal grants, particularly for projects nearing completion with significant value.
3. Support evidence dissemination: Invest in platforms that curate and share existing research findings with educators and policymakers.
4. Explore multi-state collaborations: Catalyze partnerships among states to continue vital data collection in the absence of federal coordination.

A Call to Action

Education funders face a critical choice. We can wait to see if federal research infrastructure is rebuilt—at the risk of losing invaluable data and institutional knowledge in the meantime. Or we can step up now to preserve essential functions while advocating for the restoration of federal support.

In the coming weeks, my colleagues and I will explore specific opportunities for philanthropic intervention in greater detail, expanding on the framework outlined in our initial assessment of education priorities for 2025.. But the message today is clear: If we value evidence-based education policy and practice, we cannot afford to simply wait and see.

The time for action is now.