March 2023

On March 9, the Biden administration released its budget request for the 2024 fiscal year (FY). The budget includes proposed increases for federal agencies that support education research and statistics.

Institute of Education Sciences

The president’s budget request includes $870.9 million for the Institute of Education Sciences, which would represent an increase of $63.3 million or 7.8 percent over the $807.6 million provided in the FY 2023 omnibus. Details for each of the accounts within IES are noted in the following table:

Within the Research, Development, and Dissemination line (RD&D), the budget request includes $45 million for the National Center for Advanced Development in Education (NCADE), as part of the National Center for Education Research (NCER). As mentioned in the congressional justification, NCADE would support “innovative or unconventional research that has the potential to lead to new scientific paradigms, novel and more effective approaches to education practice or policy, or transformative technologies that substantially increase learner outcomes.” Proposed activities include a reimagined competition for the Transformative Research in the Education Sciences Grants Program, Learning Innovation Challenges, and $2 million as part of a partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF) for an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Institute focused on intelligent tutoring.

The budget documents also note plans for NCER research grant competitions in FY 2024, including Education Research Grants, Research Training, National Research and Development (R&D) Centers, and Using Longitudinal Data to Support State Policymaking. NCER is also planning to support a new competition on knowledge synthesis.

Increases for the Statistics line would support expansion of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) School Pulse Panel survey. The proposed increase for NCES also would enable the agency to meet requirements under the Geospatial Data Act to incorporate geospatial data into its work, as well as to collect, maintain, disseminate, and preserve geospatial data.

The budget documents also included an update on activities of the National Board for Education Sciences (NBES), responsible for advising IES on its priorities and providing guidance on agency policies, including peer review. In October 2022, President Joe Biden appointed 14 members to serve on the NBES, providing the board with a quorum of members for the first time since 2016. The IES congressional justification notes: “The Department [of Education] is working with each nominee to complete required ethics review tasks prior to the start of terms of service. In addition, IES staff are working to convene an inaugural meeting of the Board as soon as possible.”

National Science Foundation

The budget request includes $11.31 billion overall for NSF. The FY 2023 omnibus appropriations bill included $8.84 billion in the Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) appropriations legislation, in addition to over $1 billion in supplemental funding. The NSF budget documents note comparative increases for NSF to FY 2023 to the combined amount of the $8.84 billion and $700 million in supplemental funding not allocated for CHIPs and Science Act implementation. The following table noting the FY 2024 proposed funding for NSF reflects the budget documents in highlighting total amounts for FY 2023, with comparison to the base FY 2023 funding level of $9.53 billion.

National Science Foundation (in millions)

Under the proposed budget request, the STEM Education Directorate (EDU) would receive a $198.2 million increase that would support ongoing STEM education research and STEM education activities. The Research and Related Activities (R&RA) account would receive an increase of $1.4 billion over the base FY 2023 amount. Within R&RA, the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) would see an increase of $11.3 million for a total of $90.2 million for FY 2024. This amount would support core NCSES surveys and data collection, as well as the development of the National Secure Data Service (NSDS).

National Institutes of Health

The FY 2024 budget request includes $51.1 billion for the National Institutes of Health, a $1.9 billion increase over FY 2023 levels. The proposal would allocate $48.6 billion for foundational NIH programs and $2.5 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). These amounts would represent an increase of $920.6 million for NIH institutes and $1 billion for ARPA-H.

Under this proposal. the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) would not receive an increase—being held frozen at FY 2023 levels.

National Institutes of Health (in billions)

Outlook for FY 2024 Appropriations

Although the budget request provides a generous proposal for education research and statistics, a divided Congress will have different budget priorities. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has proposed that overall federal funding be cut back to FY 2022 levels. In response to an inquiry from House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), agency leaders highlighted the impact that a significant cut of funding to FY 2022 levels would have on key programs.

At the same time, efforts to increase the debt ceiling will likely be accompanied by calls to reimplement budget caps. While these issues may complicate the appropriations process, AERA has and will continue to advocate for robust funding for federally funded education research and data infrastructure. Activities in March included letters in support of community requests:

• Friends of IES in support of at least $900 million for IES
• Coalition for National Science Funding in support of $11.9 billion for NSF (House | Senate)
• Friends of NCHS in support of $215 million for NCHS (the National Center for Health Statistics)