iv FY 2019 AGENCY FINANCIAL REPORT | U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

MESSAGE FROM THE SECRETARY

November 15, 2019

As this Administration continues to focus on improving 

student achievement, I would like to note the Department’s 

accomplishments this past fiscal year and plans for the next 

year. We continue our focus on putting students’ needs first. 

All students are unique and deserve access to personalized 

education opportunities which help them achieve their full 

potential. By keeping students at the center of all we do, 

we are able to better execute the Department of Education’s 

mission to promote student achievement and preparation for 

global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence. 

I’d like to highlight a few ways in which we’ve empowered 

students and their families as well as state and local leaders 

and invite you to learn more about the Department’s annual 

operations in this report. This year, the Department unveiled 

our Education Freedom Scholarships (EFS) proposal. This 

historic investment in America’s students would establish a 

$5 billion federal tax credit to encourage voluntary donations 

to state law-based scholarship granting organizations for 

elementary and secondary students. Students receiving 

scholarships would be empowered to choose the learning 

environment and style that best meets their unique needs. 

The policy would not rely on any funds currently allocated to 

public education, nor would it create a new federal education 

program. Participation would be voluntary for students, 

schools, and states. Education Freedom Scholarships will 

finally give students the opportunity to learn in places and 

grow in ways that have too often been denied to them. 

Students and their unique needs are also at the heart of the 

Department’s implementation of the Every Student Succeeds 

Act (ESSA). ESSA is an acknowledgment that the federal 

government doesn’t know best when it comes to educating 

our nation’s students. Our focus is on returning power 

where it belongs, to those closest to students: parents, states, 

and local leaders. The flexibilities included in ESSA are 

wide-ranging, and we continue to encourage state and local 

leaders to embrace them to better serve students. 

We believe teachers need flexibility and autonomy as well. 

That’s why in the President’s proposed budget for fiscal year 

2020 we included an innovative approach to empowering 

teachers with greater freedom to chart professional 

development journeys of their own choosing. These “teacher 

vouchers” would free teachers to improve and innovate for 

their students on their own terms, funded by a proposed 

$300 million investment in Education Innovation and 

Research Grants. Additionally, our proposed $200 million 

investment in Teacher and School Leaders Incentive Grants 

would help ensure teachers have access to high-quality 

mentoring and residency programs.

As a part of our effort to rethink higher education and 

encourage students of all ages to find the right education 

fit for them, we proposed reforms related to accreditation, 

distance education and innovation, Teacher Education 

Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) 

Grants, and faith-based institutions. Our proposed 

accreditation reform modernizes the Department’s standards 

and eliminates the artificial divide between regional and 

national accreditors—a divide which harms students, limits 

opportunities, and misleads students about academic quality. 

The distance education regulation clarifies requirements for 

technologies that enable personalized learning and ensures 

that college credits mean the same thing from one institution 

to the next. It does so while allowing space for nontraditional 

technologies to measure learning in ways not strictly tied to 

time spent behind a desk.

We’ve also proposed changes to the TEACH Grant Program. 

These changes would simplify program requirements and 

minimize the number of grants that are inadvertently 

converted to loans, helping to ensure that TEACH Grant 

recipients who go on to teach in high-need fields at lowincome schools get the credit they deserve for their service. 
MESSAGE FROM THE SECRETARY

FY 2019 AGENCY FINANCIAL REPORT | U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION v

to carry out one of the key recommendations of the final 

report, the Departments of Education, Homeland Security, 

Health and Human Services, and Justice, will launch a 

much-anticipated school safety clearinghouse website—a 

useful resource to state and local school officials, law 

enforcement authorities, mental health professionals, and 

others to help keep students safe. 

Sound stewardship of taxpayer funds is a priority for our 

Department, and I have been assured that the financial 

data included 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 accompanies 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 2019 financial statements. Last 

year, the internal control report identified one material 

weakness, “Controls over the Reliability of Information 

Used in the Modeling Activities Need Improvement,” for 

which the Department has developed corrective action plans 

that have been implemented over the past year. Nonetheless, 

a material weakness for this area was again included in this 

year’s audit report. The Department remains committed to 

addressing this material weakness.

None of these during the past year would be possible 

without the hard work and dedication of Department staff. 

Together, we have made significant strides in promoting 

student achievement and preparing students for success.

Betsy DeVos

In addition, our rulemaking effort for faith-based institutions 

will help ensure institutions are not forced to abandon the 

tenets of their faith to receive federal support. 

Over the past year, our Office of Federal Student Aid has 

worked diligently to transform the delivery of financial aid 

to millions of students and their families through our Next 

Generation (Next Gen) Financial Services Environment. 

Upon completion, this major transformation will 

modernize technology and operational components that 

support federal student aid programs—from application 

to repayment. We launched the myStudentAid app, which 

allows students and parents to easily complete the Free 

Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®). We also 

improved the College Scorecard to include information on 

2,100 certificate-granting institutions in addition to 3,700 

degree-granting institutions. The Scorecard now contains 

preliminary information on student loan debt by field 

of study. And, in support of our veterans, the President 

signed a memorandum to automatically forgive federal 

student loan debt for those veterans who are totally and 

permanently disabled.

In rethinking career, technical, and adult education, we 

focused on expanding the Second Chance Pell experiment 

by allowing new higher education institutions to 

participate. This important experiment has already provided 

many students with new opportunities that prepare them 

for success upon reentry, and adding additional students 

and institutions to the experiment will help to improve the 

Department’s ability to evaluate the program’s effectiveness. 

We’ve also made a concerted effort to engage more 

closely with state and local leaders by launching a State 

Education Leadership Conference series. This initiative gave 

Department leaders the opportunity to engage firsthand 

with state and local officials who are on the front lines 

of education decision making in their respective states. 

We held productive sessions with officials from Georgia, 

Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina. 

Finally, we launched the Federal Commission on School 

Safety website, which features the final report of the 

Commission along with recommendations for keeping 

students, teachers, and faculty safe at school. The website 

also includes a Frequently Asked Questions page that 

consolidates previously issued guidance and technical 

assistance into a single resource to help raise schools’ and 

districts’ awareness of supports available to them. Further,