A provision in this year's economic-stimulus law aimed at preventing states from cutting their education budgets may be having the opposite effect, according to a new memorandum by the Education Department's Office of Inspector General.
Under the law's "maintenance of effort" requirement, states that receive a share of the law's $54-billion in education aid must provide as much money for education in each fiscal year through 2011 as they did in the 2006 budget year. Struggling states that can show they are spending the same percentage of revenue on education as they did in the previous year can apply for a waiver from the requirement.
But according to the memorandum, some states—including Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania—are cutting spending on education to fiscal-year 2006 levels, then using stimulus dollars to fill in the gaps. In Massachusetts, lawmakers made midyear cuts to their fiscal-year 2009 budget, plugged the hole with stimulus dollars, and then applied for a waiver for fiscal years 2010 and 2011, saying the state would be unable to finance its public colleges at 2006 levels.
The memorandum urges the Education Department to track state spending on public education to determine whether the "maintenance of effort" requirement is backfiring and encouraging states to cut education spending.
Comments
1. bapowell - October 02, 2009 at 09:35 am
I don't understand why this would be a concern when the Department of Education has done the same thing by claiming to "supplement" Federal Work-Study funding this year when, in reality, they simply re-allocated the money to show that some of the funds came from ARRA. Do as we say not as we do?
2. studfinsvcs - October 02, 2009 at 10:49 am
bapowell must be confused. Total Federal Work Study funding was increased by $200 million in stimulus funding. Some schools did not see an increase due to how the distribution formula works, but many schools did see an increase.
3. kculler - October 02, 2009 at 01:25 pm
bapowell is actually right, at least in the case of what I saw at my insitution, although the exact way the ARRA funding affects each insitution may differ depending on their circumstances. I only requested $500,000 in 2009-2010 FWS funding, which was the same as I requested in 2008-2009, and it is important to note that the distribution formula would have allowed me to request and receive more then the $500,000. On 03/24/09, DOE authorized me for $500,000, on 03/25/09 they backed it off, and on 03/30/09 they replaced it with $412,679 in "base" funding and $87,321 in "ARRA" funding, totalling the same $500,000 with the added pleasure of having to do special reporting on my utilization of the ARRA funding. Go to cbfisap.ed.gov and run a Statement of Account for 2009-2010 and you'll probably see the exact same thing - as clear as mud.