Substantive issues are discussed under the section of the regulations to which they pertain. How the Secretary selects applications for new grants. The Department received a total of 11 comments on this section. The majority of commenters agreed with this change and felt that an institution that received grant funds should be held accountable for meeting the objectives of the grant. The Secretary agrees.
Accountability is important to ensure progress and success.
The submission of a final report provides opportunity for the general public to know that their tax dollars were spent wisely and provides the educational community with the opportunity to replicate a successful project. The failure to meet all of the obligations in a previous grant would alert the Department that something could be seriously wrong and ED would conduct a further review before funds could be granted in the future. One commenter disagreed with the proposed change because the commenter thought it was unfair to penalize an entity for the acts of one individual and that ED does not have standards for report quality. The criteria for selection of new grants are established in regulations of the Department. The Secretary does not agree that there need to be separate criteria for reports.