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Priority Open Recommendations: Department of Education

GAO-22-105622 Published: Jun 28, 2022. Publicly Released: Jul 05, 2022.
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Fast Facts

Each year, we make more than 1,000 recommendations to help improve the federal government. We alert department heads to where they can save the most money, address issues on our High Risk List, or significantly improve government operations.

This report outlines our 5 priority open recommendations for the Department of Education as of June 2022. For example, to help ensure that student loan borrowers receive more consistent advice, we recommended that Education improve guidance it provides to the companies it pays to manage the loans.

Since our previous letter in June 2021, Education implemented 3 of our priority recommendations.

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Highlights

What GAO Found

In June 2021, GAO identified seven priority recommendations for the Department of Education. Since then, Education has implemented three of those recommendations by: 1) improving the quality of data on restraint and seclusion incidents in public schools; and 2) working with states to regularly collect and report information on school district and state spending of certain COVID-19 relief funds, providing greater clarity to track spending.

In June 2022, GAO identified one additional priority recommendation for Education, bringing the total number to five. These recommendations involve the following areas:

  • protecting the investment in higher education and
  • ensuring the well-being and education of the nation's school-age children.

Education's continued attention to these issues could lead to significant improvements in government operations.

Why GAO Did This Study

Priority open recommendations are the GAO recommendations that warrant priority attention from heads of key departments or agencies because their implementation could save large amounts of money; improve congressional and/or executive branch decision-making on major issues; eliminate mismanagement, fraud, and abuse; or ensure that programs comply with laws and funds are legally spent, among other benefits. Since 2015 GAO has sent letters to selected agencies to highlight the importance of implementing such recommendations.

For more information, contact Cindy Brown Barnes at (202) 512-7215 or brownbarnesc@gao.gov.
 


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Charter schoolsEducation loan programsHigh-risk issuesHigher educationPublic schoolsSchool districtsSpecial educationStudent financial aidStudentsTax expenditures