Washington — The National Governors Association is urging the secretary of education to temporarily waive a new federal requirement that states maintain their spending on higher education in the midst of deteriorating budget conditions across the nation.

In a letter dated today, the group argued that states should receive a reprieve from the requirement for the budgets they set for the next fiscal year (or the next two fiscal years, in the case of states with biennial budgets), “given the current national and state economic crises.”

Under a provision of the legislation that renewed the Higher Education Act, states must raise spending on higher education each year by at least as much as they increased it, on average, over the previous five years. States that don’t meet that requirement will lose funds under the federal College Access Challenge Grant program, which offers matching grants intended to increase the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education.

The bill allows the secretary of education to waive the spending requirement on the basis of “a precipitous and unforeseen decline in the financial resources of a state or state educational agency.”

In their letter, the governors argued that current economic conditions fit that description, noting that 27 states are already facing a combined budget shortfall of more than $26-billion, a figure that is expected to grow. And “with the national economy not expected to recover until late 2009, states expect revenue shortfalls to continue for the next several years,” they wrote.

“Governors take their responsibility to fund higher education very seriously, but the scope of the current economic decline will force states to cut spending across a wide variety of state services including health, education, transportation, and public safety,” the governors wrote.

If states are denied funds under the federal challenge-grant program, the governors said, the punishment will have a “disparate impact” on low-income students, since the money under the program provides them with need-based aid, financial counseling, and other services. —Sara Hebel