Waste of the Day: Education Earmarks Got a Failing Grade

Topline: The Department of Education has been in the headlines lately as some critics call it a waste of federal funds amid President Donald Trump’s promise to close it down.

The Education Department already had a nasty reputation

But politicians have been sounding the alarm bells for years. In 2010, Sen. Tom Coburn blasted two of the department’s top programs for spending $2.3 billion on “pork barrel” earmarks over 10 years.

That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn. For years, these reports shined a white-hot spotlight on federal frauds and taxpayer abuses. 

Coburn, the legendary U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, earned the nickname “Dr. No” by stopping thousands of pork-barrel projects using the Senate rules. Projects that he couldn’t stop, Coburn included in his oversight reports.   

Coburn’s Wastebook 2010 included 100 examples of outrageous spending worth more than $11.5 billion, including $226 million of Department of Education earmarks from fiscal year 2010 — which would be worth $326.2 million today.

Key facts: The Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education and the Fund for the Improvement of Education at one point administered nearly every education earmark passed by Congress: 5,563 in a 10-year span.

Coburn published a report of nearly 100 pages detailing some of the most absurd earmarks. 

Congress members secured $181 million for schools and programs named after themselves. A $450,000 grant went toward “educational outreach” at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

Rep. Robert Andrews sponsored six earmarks worth $3.2 million in total to forgive student loans for graduates of Rutgers Law School, where his wife worked as the assistant dean.

The earmark still exists

Other earmarks funded college courses about “wine studies,” mariachi music and more.

Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com. 

Background: The Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education still exists today and received $202.3 million in earmarks in 2024. 

It’s no longer as easy to track its potentially wasteful spending. As of Jan. 20, clicking on the “earmarks” section of its website returns a “Page Not Found” error. 

Summary: Trump has been clear about his desire to cut the Department of Education’s funding, but political leaders of both parties have tried and failed to slow the mass of earmarks flowing in every year. 

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com

This article was originally published by RCI and made available via RealClearWire.