Now that school is officially out for the summer for most schools across the United States, Open The Books, a non-profit government watchdog group, released their May 2026 Progress Report.
In this report, the group’s analysis found that since 2000, there has been a 749% increase in federal tax dollars funneled to the Department of Education – while academic proficiency has continued to plummet each year.
In 2024, only 34% of graduating seniors could read at age level, and only 45% were proficient in basic mathematics.
The focus on academics has been replaced with woke ideology and students are the ones suffering.
The report notes that while the Trump Administration has been working to cut through the wasteful spending and government bureaucracy that is alive and well inside of the Department of Education, more work needs to be done. Plus, Congress must partner with the Administration’s goal to completely disassemble the unnecessary and wasteful department.
“Spending on diversity, equity, and inclusion-related grants soared under Biden. Grants containing the words “social justice” or “equity” cost taxpayers between $144 million and $174 million between FY 2021 and 2024. Although Trump took an aggressive anti-DEI stance, $62 million in such funding was still spent.”
To get a picture of the wasteful spending the Department has consistently engaged in year after year, the report notes the salaries of the government bureaucrat positions.
“About 65% of Department of Education employees, or 2,745, worked in D.C., Maryland, or Virginia in 2024, followed by those working in Georgia (173), Texas (155), and California (149). The highest frequency job title—and therefore highest salary expense—is “management and program analysis;” 933 employees collectively earned over $133 million.”
I do not believe I am the only one who is stunned by the fact that 933 Management and Program Analysis employees (the management and programs that have consistently failed to keep our students safe and educated) still earned a salary of over $133 million dollars collectively.
For a tax-funded government agency that continues to fail students morally and academically, these salaries are out of control and tone deaf to the real problems the Education Department has allowed and encouraged to perpetuate.
The Department’s wasteful spending and ridiculous red tape surrounding parental rights and access to their children’s information coupled with the plummeting academic results must lead parents to strongly consider choosing a different education option next school year.
The government education system has proven time after time that they are ill-qualified on both moral and academic levels to educate your children.
Get. Them. Out.
To learn more about how you can confidently exit the failing public school system, click here for more information and resource options.
