U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce

2006 Presidential Award for Management Excellence

Department of Education

Budget and Performance Integration
Innovative and Exemplary Practices

The mission of the Department of Education is to promote and ensure equity and excellence in education for the American people from early childhood through postgraduate studies.  The nation’s competitiveness, citizens’ quality of life and the continued pursuit of knowledge all depend upon the Department’s ability to meet its mission.  The Department of Education provides over $60 billion in funding for more than 180 Federal education programs.  These programs reach some 54 million elementary and secondary school students in over 14,000 school districts.  The Department also serves 10 million students attending postsecondary institutions.  

In meeting its objectives, the Department of Education has demonstrated outstanding commitment to the President’s Management Agenda’s Budget and Performance Integration initiative.  The ability to use performance information to make critical funding decisions is a cornerstone of this initiative.  In the Department of Education’s Presidential budget request to Congress, a fully integrated package of budgetary recommendations is supported by performance data for each budget item.  This analysis and presentation enabled policymakers to use the results of Federal investments in education programs as the basis for future funding.  The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has recognized the Department’s exemplary work, and Congress has directed other agencies, through appropriations acts and committee reports, to look to the Department of Education’s budget justifications as a model. 

An important element of the Department’s initiative for budget and performance integration has been its effort to assess its programs and to present straightforward, easy-to-follow performance information, including independent studies.   The Department has worked closely with the OMB and congressional staff in developing assessment plans and strategies, as well as creating valuable presentation formats for performance results. 

The techniques used by the Department of Education to develop a fully integrated budget request for the budget submission are easily be adaptable to other agency budgetary processes.