This report evaluates Department of Education opportunities to consolidate overlapping education programs, to find cost savings, and to strengthen its "gatekeeping" over schools' participation in student financial aid programs. It notes that, besides already proposed program consolidation, other programs that could be streamlined include…

since the economic difficulties of the 1980s and 1990s, community colleges have had to reconcile limited resources with open door admissions policies and a broad institutional mission. College budgets have not generally increased sufficiently to compensate for rising costs, with state-level financial support for higher education falling by 9.5% to…