Department of Education

The department charged with managing the federal investment in education and leading the long-term effort to improve education lacks a clear management vision of how to best marshal its resources to achieve its mission. The Education Department's history is replete with long-standing management problems that have erupted periodically and diverted attention from the policy agenda. Financial management at the guaranteed student loan program is a case in point. This report, one in a series of GAO management reviews of federal departments and agencies, identifies problems in the Education Department's planning processes and recommends implementation of a strategic management process.

GAO found that: (1) Education lacks a clear management mission of how to best marshal its resources to effectively achieve its mission; (2) Education's ability to implement solutions to its problems and effectively plan is impeded without a process for setting clear goals and priorities; (3) past political leadership at Education did not give priority to building and maintaining an organization that could implement major policy initiatives; (4) in developing and implementing critical policies, goals, priorities, and programs, Education does not have in place the structures and systems it needs to support managerial decisionmaking and accountability; (5) a shortage of technically qualified staff has contributed to financial and information management problems; and (6) many Education managers believe that management problems remain unresolved because of the agency's culture, characterized by a focus on short-term solutions, highly centralized decisionmaking, and limited communications with and use of career employees.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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