On the House FY27 Education Funding Proposal: Modest Progress, Measurable Harm, and a Call for Senate Action

The House Appropriations Committee has advanced its fiscal year 2027 funding proposal for the U.S. Department of Education—and for students, institutions, and researchers, the picture is more concerning than encouraging. While the proposal includes a few modest increases and continued investments, its steep cuts to student aid programs and education research infrastructure would cause lasting harm, particularly for students with the greatest financial need. We urge the Senate to chart a different course. 

Amid the damaging cuts, a few provisions stand out. The proposed $50 increase to the maximum Pell Grant would bring the award to $7,445 for the 2027-28 award year, and the proposal includes mandatory funding to help address the program’s growing shortfall. The $50 increase is a start, not a solution. While welcome, it fails to keep pace with inflation and does little to restore the grant’s purchasing power for students. And without a shift to fully mandatory funding, the Pell Grant program and its student grantees will remain vulnerable to cuts in grant amounts, eligibility, or other financial aid.  

We also welcome the $45 million in level funding for the Postsecondary Student Success Grant program, which supports evidence-based approaches to improving retention and completion at a moment when postsecondary outcomes remain deeply uneven. These are steps worth acknowledging—and steps the Senate should build on with more robust, sustained investment.  

Our deeper concerns lie elsewhere in the bill. The House proposes funding the Institute for Education Sciences (IES) at just $493.5 million—a 37.5 percent cut from current levels—and would slash funding for data collections and studies by nearly 50 percent. That’s not a trim; it’s a gutting. IES is the nation’s independent, nonpartisan research arm housed within the Education Department. Its data collections—including the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS)—underpin tools like the College Scorecard and inform how policymakers understand college access, affordability, and completion. IES has already sustained devastating losses: the Trump administration canceled research and data collection contracts, cut 90 percent of IES staff, and has left previously appropriated funds unspent. Additional cuts in FY27 would compound that damage when the agency can least afford it. Equally troubling is what the House bill omits entirely: firm directives to the Education Department to sustain critical data collections, maintain NPSAS frequency, and remain accountable to Congress. The Senate must fill that gap. 

The House’s treatment of campus-based aid programs is deeply disappointing. The bill’s proposed 40 percent cut to the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant is alarming. While the proposal rejects the President’s budget request to eliminate the program entirely, reducing FSEOG to $546 million, $364 million below the FY26 enacted level, would strip need-based aid from the students already stretching the farthest to afford college. The bill also cuts Federal Work-Study by $322 million from FY26 levels, leaving the program at $908 million. Work-Study connects students with employment opportunities that help them cover basic expenses, build career skills, and stay enrolled. These cuts don’t happen in a vacuum—they are felt most by students with the fewest resources. 

The Senate can build on this proposal and do better. We urge Senate appropriators to increase the maximum Pell Grant and fully fund the Pell Grant program, reject the harmful cuts in the House’s FY27 bill, and advance an agreement that upholds Congress’s long-standing commitment to education research, student aid, and evidence-based policymaking. For the millions of students who depend on these programs, settling for less is not an option.