Resources

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has posted on its Web site a recent series of webinars it conducted on new guidance on the reporting requirements associated with receipt of funds under President Obama's economic stimulus plan.

The economic stimulus package contains unprecedented amounts of new funding for education, which presents numerous opportunities (and some obstacles) for private schools.

This Web page contains a table showing the stimulus bill appropriations for U.S. Department of Education (ED), as well as ED's most recent projections of state allocations for stimulus funds. The page also presents information on projected allocations for Title I grants. The Title I projections must be used with caution because they are based on preliminary population data and are subject to a variety of adjustments at the state level. 

For over 40 years "maintenance of effort" has been a potent weapon used by state education agencies to caution state legislatures against reducing support for education. A pre-condition of eligibility for state-administered federal education grants required the state to expend at least as much in nonfederal funds for that program in the preceding year as it spent in non-federal funds in the second preceding year. This funding provision is referred to as "maintenance of effort" or "MOE."

Much of the focus today is on the fiscal stimulus bills being considered by Congress. Both the House and the Senate bills require that states that access the stabilization funds maintain fiscal effort at specified levels. The House version does not contemplate any waiver of the MOE provision. The current Senate bill, however, does authorize the Secretary to grant waivers of MOE.

Under the stimulus package, Congress is allocating billions of dollars for federal education programs, but there is some ambiguity over the applicability of the fiscal requirements that will accompany those funds. The first question that surfaces regarding the legislation is, "How do supplement not supplant and maintenance of effort requirements apply to the stabilization funding authorized in both the House and Senate versions of the bill?"