This week, the Alliance for Learning Innovation released a funding analysis to compare research and development (R&D) spending across various federal agencies, including the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Defense. The analysis, Why the Federal Investment in Education R&D Must Increase, makes the case that Congress should prioritize funding research and innovations that will improve student outcomes.
In Fiscal Year 2022, the federal government spent $3.75 billion on R&D in agriculture – amounting to $1,102 per American farmer and $11 per U.S. resident. Meanwhile, federal education R&D investment equates to $28 per student and $4 per resident. The disparity is more striking when compared to defense. Congress provided $78.64 billion to defense R&D in Fiscal Year 2022. That’s $37,852 per American service member and $236 per U.S. resident.
As another point of comparison, districts typically spend more on textbooks, at $56 per student, than the federal government invests in developing new tools and approaches that will help students learn.
At a time when the majority of parents, students, and teachers believe that AI can help boost achievement, the federal government is underfunding R&D that can explore effective uses of AI in the classroom and support the development of new, AI-powered instructional tools. It's time to reevaluate the federal investment in R&D to fuel education innovation.
To learn more about ALI’s proposed solutions, read the full analysis here.