How much Does the Federal Government Spend on Special Education

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The Government Accountability Office has released a report on federal education spending. You can review the entire report here. Those of us who crunch numbers enjoy these sorts of reports.

Although it is difficult to decipher in parts because special ed funds get disbursed through different programs and the federal budget is a big mess. Nonetheless, these reports are instructive. The main special ed program, the grants to states, makes up about 19% of the total federal education spending. The total of this program for Fiscal Years 2006, 2007 and 2008 was 32.3 billion dollars. This is another one of those reports that special ed professionals should save a copy of. You never know when you may be requested to quote stats!

Any thoughts about these numbers? Do they sound about right? Take a look at the report for all education programs and what we spend on them.

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