IHEP President Mamie Voight’s Statement Regarding Recent Contract Cancellations at the Institute of Education Sciences
Published Feb 11, 2025
WASHINGTON, DC (February 11, 2025) – Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) President & CEO Mamie Voight released the following statement regarding recent contract cancellations at the Institute of Education Sciences:
“It is time to sound the alarm: Our nation’s leading source to support student learning through independent education research, evaluation, and statistics is under threat. I am deeply troubled by reports that the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the respected, nonpartisan national education research arm of the U.S. Department of Education, is being gutted by the Department of Government Efficiency.
“The Institute of Education Sciences works in service to our nation’s students, and its insights make our higher education system more effective. Educators, innovators, and policymakers alike rely on its rigorous data and evaluations to better understand what helps students succeed and identify where to make improvements.
“Whittling down IES is a short-sighted cut that will cause long term scarring on our nation’s postsecondary system and limit our basic understanding of higher education.
“Students will surely suffer when educators can no longer access rigorous research about what works best to improve student outcomes. Policymakers will surely suffer when they can no longer shape policy solutions using objective data, research, and evaluations IES develops including the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study which for decades has tracked trends in how students and families pay for college. Without these insights policymakers will be unable to steward taxpayer resources efficiently.
“The Trump Administration’s abrupt and irresponsible mid-project cancellations also mean taxpayers suffer. Resources already spent to begin data collection and analysis will be wasted if those studies are not completed and published, and any future taxpayer investments in education will be made without rigorous evidence.
“These actions shift our country away from evidence-based policy in favor of uninformed guesswork. Our country and our students deserve better. Congressional leaders—and all who believe in the critical importance of data and evidence—now is the time to use every tool in your toolbox to safeguard our national education research infrastructure before it is damaged for good. We cannot afford to lose the evidence that helps ensure strong educational outcomes for all students. If we do, our nation will regret these actions for generations to come.”
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