Victories for American Taxpayers: Exposing COVID-Era Fraud, Waste, and Abuse in Federal Education Programs

The Trump Administration continues to tackle fraud, waste, and abuse across federal elementary and secondary education and higher education programs that have squandered taxpayer dollars as part of the President's Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. The U.S. Department of Education (the Department) has been a leader in cracking down on fraud and has uncovered tens of millions of dollars in fraud and mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic education relief funds.

Under the Biden Administration, billions of dollars in education and related pandemic relief funding were distributed with weak safeguards and reduced oversight. This created opportunities for malign actors to exploit federal programs, diverting resources away from students, families, and taxpayers.

Now, the Department, in partnership with its Office of Inspector General (OIG), is undertaking efforts to hold malign actors accountable, and restore integrity to federal education programs.

Cracking Down on COVID-Era Fraud: OIG investigations and oversight efforts have exposed significant fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement tied to pandemic-related education funds.

• A recent OIG inspection found that the Puerto Rico Department of Education improperly used $3.9 million in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds on services that were not delivered as required and failed to support student academic progress as intended.

• An OIG investigation found that a maintenance director of Boone County schools in West Virginia, his parents, and a contractor defrauded the school district out of $3.4 million by falsifying documents and overbilling for large amounts of janitorial and custodial products when the Boone County Board of Education only received a small amount of those products or paid for products that were never delivered.

• An OIG audit found the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction improperly approved ineligible nonpublic schools' applications providing over $20 million in American Rescue Plan Emergency Assistance to Non-Public Schools (ARP EANS) funded services and assistance to 184 ineligible nonpublic schools.