As of Fiscal Year (FY) 2025, the U.S. Department of Education's total budget allocation was approximately $103 billion, accounting for about 1% of the total federal budget for the year. This amount includes both discretionary and mandatory funding. Discretionary funding, which is subject to annual appropriations by Congress, was suggested at $80 billion by the Senate Appropriations Committee. This proposal is slightly below the White House's request of $82 billion.
Even with all of this funding, as of the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), U.S. students experienced significant declines in academic proficiency, with notable disparities across racial and ethnic groups. National Math proficiency rates in 2022 for 4th grade saw 36% of students performing at or above the NAEP proficient level, a decrease of 5 percentage points from 2019. For 8th Graders, 26% of students achieved proficiency, down from 33% in 2019.
The 4th and 8th grade average math scores by race/ethnicity revealed Asian and white students outperforming other racial/ethnic groups by a large margin. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing disparities. From 2019 to 2022, average math scores declined across all racial and ethnic groups, with Black and Hispanic students experiencing larger decreases, leading to widened score gaps. When race is abrogated from the equation, across the board, students eligible for the National School Lunch Program scored, on average, 26 points lower than their peers who were not eligible.