Association for Education Finance and Policy v. McMahon

In 2002, Congress passed the Education Sciences Reform Act, which established the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), a semi-independent division of the Department of Education dedicated to conducting, supporting and disseminating high-quality evidence-based research on education in America. Congress, through that Act, required IES to conduct evaluations of various federal education programs, collect data from institutions, localities, and teachers, and provide assistance to state and local education agencies, teachers, researchers, and policymakers. Through this work, IES has served as the backbone of education research in the United States for decades.

In February 2025, the Department of Education began efforts to dismantle IES by cancelling dozens of contracts for research studies and support services vital to IES’s functioning. In March 2025, the Department gave approximately 90% of IES employees notice that they would be terminated. IES also terminated certain data licenses that researchers rely on to conduct their work.

Representing the Association for Education Finance and Policy, an association of 1,000 education researchers and practitioners, and the Institute for Higher Education Policy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research, policy and advocacy organization, Public Citizen filed a lawsuit challenging the Department’s attempts to shut down IES. The complaint alleges that the actions are ultra vires, contrary to the statutes requiring IES to exist and conduct and disseminate research, arbitrary and capricious, and in violation of the Impoundment Control Act and the Anti-Deficiency Act. Soon thereafter, we filed a motion for a preliminary injunction, to stop the harms that are already occurring and the harms that are likely to follow should Defendants be allowed to complete the evisceration of IES and termination of its statutory functions.