By Giff Johnson
For Variety

MAJURO —After more than six months of uncertainty about promised multi-million dollar U.S. funding for education programs in the Marshall Islands, the Department of the Interior has confirmed that nearly $6 million will be provided for the current fiscal year, which is already more than half over.
But Ministry of Education officials say that while they’re happy the money is finally approved, the ministry has lost $400,000 because the U.S. did not increase the funding for inflation as previously agreed.
Washington-based Interior Department official Tom Bussanich has confirmed to Marshall Islands Chief Secretary Casten Nemra that the Marshall Islands will receive $5,990,490. This funding supplements more than $20 million in other grants that the U.S. government is providing for public education in the Marshall Islands.
The lack of a U.S. government budget until last month prevented determination of the supplemental education grant, or SEG, amount. SEG funding supports a variety of education projects, including kindergarten services, textbook purchases and National Training Council skills training programs.
Ministry of Education officials said they are on a fast track to provide their detailed budget for the funding to expedite release of funds since the funding plan must be vetted by three U.S. agencies in Washington, D.C. —Interior, Education, and Health and Human Services — before Interior can give the money to this western Pacific nation.
“The Marshall Islands Ministry of Education has been notified about the fiscal year 2007 SEG grant amount and is now required to submit an official plan to Interior for approval indicating how they intend to use the FY 2007 money,” said Alan Fowler, a Majuro-based Interior Department official.
Fowler said he hoped that the money will be available for use by the Ministry of Education “no later than the end of June. The sooner the plan is submitted, the sooner the approval process can begin.”
Although $6 million is slightly higher than the funding provided in fiscal year 2006, Ministry of Education officials expressed concern that the education money was not adjusted upward for inflation as promised in the Compact of Free Association. Education Secretary Biram Stege said an inflation adjustment would have added another $400,000 to this year’s grant.
“We lost out,” she said.
All U.S. funding is subject to an “Iraq decrement” that reduces appropriations to pay for the ongoing war in the Middle East, but even with that Iraq deduction factored in, this year’s SEG should have been about $6.4 million, said Ministry official Pat Lane. “$400,000 would have bought five grades of textbooks or helped start a lunch feeding program,” he said.
U.S. officials have told the Marshall Islands that they will request the inflation increase for the next fiscal year that starts on October 1.