iv FY 2021 AGENCY FINANCIAL REPORT | U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

November 19, 2021

Message From the Secretary

Fiscal year (FY) 2021, while challenging, was also a year in 

which the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) 

redoubled our efforts to ensure that the nation’s students 

receive an education that unlocks their potential—no 

matter their background or circumstance. With a great 

education, children can do and become anything they 

choose. That is the American dream so many of us have 

experienced, and I am committed to making sure that all 

our students can achieve their dreams. I see this Department 

as a service agency, devoted to that goal. 

Our priorities for FY 2021 were to: reopen schools safely 

for students, educators, and school staff amid the evolving 

COVID-19 pandemic, understanding the vital importance 

of in-person learning; reinvest in the supports and resources 

students need to thrive; and reimagine our education 

system so that it truly serves all students well. The current 

public health and resulting economic crises have revealed 

needs and yielded lessons that must inform our work with 

states and communities as, together, we strive to advance 

excellence and equity for the nation’s diverse learners. We 

can heal, restore, and rebuild—creating a U.S. education 

system that is better than ever before. 

I spent much of this year traveling to multiple states 

and territories, talking directly to educators, parents, 

and students; touring classrooms; visiting enriching and 

engaging summer programs; attending college vaccination 

clinics; and observing school buildings in desperate need 

of upgrade. I have seen firsthand the opportunities and 

challenges in education. I also have seen the incredible 

resilience of our communities and the immense care our 

educators have for their students. These experiences have 

given me an invaluable perspective and reinforced my 

passion for advancing the goals of President Biden’s Build 

Back Better agenda.

This is America’s moment to ensure that we reopen our 

schools safely while we deliver on education’s potential to 

be the “great equalizer”—the force that can open the doors 

of opportunity for every child. Simply going back to how 

things were before the pandemic would mean returning to 

a system in which too many students, particularly students 

of color, students from low-income backgrounds, English 

learners, and students with disabilities, would continue to 

be underserved. The potential of every child is limitless, 

but we know that educational opportunity—access to 

outstanding educators; safe, welcoming schools; rigorous 

coursework, and other critical support—is not distributed 

equally, which negatively impacts student outcomes. This 

Administration has made equity—making sure every

child receives what they need to succeed in school—a 

core priority. It is why we studied the disparate impacts 

of the pandemic on America’s students and made sure 

that schools had the resources they needed to reopen for 

in-person instruction and to support students’ academic, 

social, emotional, and mental health needs. 

This is America’s moment to reinvest in public education. 

That’s why the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) 

provides unprecedented resources to help schools meet the 

needs of students most affected by COVID-19—often 

the same students furthest from opportunity before the 

pandemic. Importantly, there is $122 billion in ARP 

Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds 

and $40 billion in ARP funds for emergency relief for 

colleges and universities. The Biden administration also has 

proposed historic investments in education, from preschool 

through college, via the Build Back Better agenda.

To support students during the pandemic, safely reopen 

schools, and begin the transformation of our education 

system, we, at the Department, have taken important steps. 

In March, we hosted the National Safe School Reopening 

Summit where panels of students, educators, school 

district leaders, and other partners engaged in productive 
FY 2021 AGENCY FINANCIAL REPORT | U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION v

MESSAGE FROM THE SECRETARY

conversations about the pandemic’s impact, strategies 

to reopen schools, and ways to rebuild. We embarked 

on a listening tour to assess the needs of our local 

communities. We released three COVID-19 handbooks 

to help prekindergarten through grade 12 schools, as 

well as colleges and universities, address the pandemic’s 

impacts, and launched the Safer Schools and Campuses 

Best Practices Clearinghouse to share promising practices 

for reopening. We partnered with the National Governors 

Association and the Council of Chief State School 

Officers to create the Summer Learning and Enrichment 

Collaborative to help states and school districts use their 

ARP funds to address lost instructional and extracurricular 

time. We paused student loan payments, helping 

borrowers burdened by debt during the COVID-19 

emergency. We expanded the Second Chance Pell 

experiment, which provides Pell Grants to incarcerated 

students, so they may pursue postsecondary education 

and better their lives and the lives of their families. 

Finally, we partnered closely with experts at the federal, 

state, and local levels in shaping responsive policies and 

resources; provided continuous assistance and guidance to 

educators, students, and parents; and engaged thousands 

of stakeholders in our nationwide efforts.

This is America’s moment to reimagine education, in ways 

that are more innovative and inclusive, and fairer than ever. 

Toward that end, the Department’s Office for Civil Rights 

(OCR) published back-to-school resource collections 

designed to assist schools with planning for a successful 

and equitable return to prek-12 schools and college 

campuses. The two collections include fact sheets, Q&As, 

letters to educators, and other materials explaining the 

obligations that elementary, secondary, and postsecondary 

schools have under the federal civil rights laws enforced 

by OCR to provide educational environments free 

from discrimination. In June, OCR issued a Notice of 

Interpretation, explaining that it will enforce Title IX’s 

prohibition on discrimination on the basis of sex, to include 

discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender 

identity. In addition, the administration took action to 

help borrowers receive student loan discharges due to total 

and permanent disability and provided relief for tens of 

thousands of student loan borrowers whose postsecondary 

institutions engaged in misconduct. 

As we reimagine teaching and learning, we must do 

more to level the playing field, including providing a 

strong foundation from birth, improving the diversity of 

our teacher workforce, and creating learning pathways 

that work for all students. Our FY 2022 budget request 

includes nearly $103 billion for Department programs, a 

41% increase over the FY 2021 appropriation. The request 

would address disparities between under-resourced schools 

and their wealthier counterparts, expand access to quality 

preschool, increase the availability of wraparound services 

in underserved schools, provide greater funding for the 

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, significantly 

increase Pell Grants, and offer two years of free community 

college to first-time college students.

The Department continues to make stewardship of 

taxpayer funds a priority. I have been assured that the 

financial and performance data included and assessed 

in this Agency Financial Report are complete and reliable 

in accordance with federal requirements. The financial 

report includes information and assurances about the 

Department’s financial management systems and controls 

as well as control and compliance challenges noted by the 

Department. Similarly, the Department’s related Annual 

Performance Report and Annual Performance Plan (Report 

and Plan) provides information on the overall performance 

of the Department as a federal agency. Each year this 

Report and Plan accompany the Department’s annual 

budget submission and links performance goals with 

resources for achieving targeted levels of performance.

This year, the Department received an unmodified or 

“clean” opinion on its FY 2021 financial statements. The 

preceding year (FY 2020), the internal control report 

identified one material weakness, “Controls over the 

Reliability of Underlying Data Used in Credit Reform Reestimates Need Improvement” for which the Department 

has developed corrective action plans that have been 

implemented over the past year. Nonetheless, this material 

weakness is included again in this year’s audit report. The 

Department remains committed to evaluating its internal 

controls for improvement opportunities.

There is a great sense of urgency about this work. 

Generations of inequity have left far too many students 

without high-quality, inclusive learning opportunities. A 

great education has the power to transform lives, uplift 

whole communities, and strengthen our democratic 

society—if we prioritize and invest in what works for 

students. The U.S. Department of Education has done so 

this year and will do so in the coming year and beyond.

Miguel A. Cardona, Ed.D.