USAspending.gov · federal agency · CY2024 · code 091
Department of Education (ED)
Federal contract spending profile, contract obligations, budget authority and top contractors, from USAspending.gov.
- Corpus rank
- #16 of 65
- Contract obligations (CY2024)
- $2.6B
- Budget authority
- $154.1B
- Agency
- ED
Year-over-year change, 2019–2024
Across the calendar years on file, Department of Education’s annual contract obligations fell from $2.7B in 2023 to $2.6B in 2024. 2.8% vs 2023 The strongest year on file is 2020 at $3.2B.
Calendar-year prime contract obligations by action date (award types A-D). Annual figures share the calendar-year basis of the CY2024 headline above; budget authority is a separate measure.
How Department of Education leads the CY2024 obligation board
$2.6B · #16 of 65 by CY2024 contract obligations (top quartile nationally) - a top-third USAspending agency by calendar-2024 contract obligations (same board as the agencies listing). See methodology.
From calendar 2019 to 2024, Department of Education held #16 of 66 agencies in the annual contract-obligation series. Its share of that year’s tracked agency total moved from 0.50% to 0.35%. Across the available annual series, its obligations ranged from $2.4B in 2022 to $3.2B in 2020, a 1.3x spread.
Nelnet Servicing LLC is the largest listed prime contractor at $365.6M, or 14.0% of this agency’s calendar-2024 obligation total. The table below shows the remaining named prime recipients in the extract. Contract obligations ($2.6B) are a thin slice of the $154.1B budget-authority ceiling - most of the legal authority is outside this contract window. Methodology documents the distinct populations and the Treasury source fields.
Top Contractors
| # | Contractor | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nelnet Servicing LLC | $365.6M |
| 2 | Accenture Federal Services LLC | $275.5M |
| 3 | Maximus Education LLC | $245.1M |
| 4 | Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority | $192.8M |
| 5 | Edfinancial Services LLC | $191.8M |
| 6 | Westat, Inc. | $128.4M |
| 7 | Maximus Federal Services, Inc. | $118.7M |
| 8 | General Dynamics Information Technology, Inc. | $91.2M |
| 9 | Peraton Enterprise Solutions LLC | $84.1M |
| 10 | American Institutes for Research in the Behavioral Sciences | $73.8M |
| 11 | Educational Testing Service | $69.3M |
| 12 | F.H. Cann & Associates, Inc. | $60.6M |
| 13 | Research Triangle Institute | $47.4M |
| 14 | Valiant Solutions, LLC | $30.4M |
| 15 | Applied Enterprise Management Corporation | $27.9M |
| 16 | Mathematica Inc. | $21.8M |
| 17 | At&t Enterprises, LLC | $21.4M |
Source: USAspending.gov · U.S. Department of the Treasury
Nearby mega-scale agencies
Data-derived peers across the USAspending agency extract: nearest contract-obligation scale and nearest budget authority. Not recommendations or same-department siblings.
Closest CY2024 contract obligations
Similar budget authority
- Department of Energy (DOE) $138.0B
- Department of State (DOS) $94.0B
- Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) $91.1B
- Department of the Interior (DOI) $89.9B
- Department of Justice (DOJ) $84.2B
- General Services Administration (GSA) $52.4B
Disclaimer: Data from USAspending.gov public records. For informational purposes only. Contract amounts are aggregated and may not reflect the most current modifications or de-obligations. Always verify with official sources.
Next read: Top defense contractors guide · All agencies · Top contractors
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.