**GAO-11-194**                      Published: Feb 10, 2011. Publicly Released: Feb 10, 2011.                  

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## Highlights

 

The U.S. Department of Education (Education) manages one of the largest discretionary appropriations of any federal agency, and plays a key role in supporting efforts to meet the nation's education goals. While Education managed a discretionary appropriation of over $160 billion in fiscal year 2009 and was responsible for administering about 200 grant programs, it has the smallest workforce of any cabinet agency. As requested, this report examines (1) the key high-level management challenges facing Education, (2) Education's strategic management of its workforce, (3) Education's design of internal controls to help ensure accountability over contracts and student aid grants, and (4) Education's information technology (IT) management controls. To do this, GAO reviewed relevant Education documents and interviewed Education program and management officials about strategic workforce management, IT, contracts, and Pell Grants.

 

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## Topics

Education

AccountabilityAgency evaluationAppropriationsContract oversightEducational grantsFederal grantsGrant monitoringInformation technologyInternal controlsPerformance managementStrategic planningLessons learned