"Not a penny to be cut — the cupboard is bare"

Dept of Ed spending soared 749% despite downsizing, new DOGE-inspired initiative reveals

'Spending has outpaced not just inflation but also growing headcounts – often many times over,' watchdog says

According to OpenTheBooks, staff levels at the Department of Education have decreased since 2000, but the agency's spending grew by 749%. OpenTheBooks says the calculation is "even more galling" after recent statistics from the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that student achievement has still not recovered since it saw big drops during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In some cases, such as with the Department of Education, the group found as much as a sevenfold increase in spending while staff headcounts remained relatively static or even went down. At the National Institutes of Health, for example, staff levels appreciated by 21.5%, but spending grew 301%.