ALTHOUGH the Public School System will soon receive a significant amount of funds from the federal government, Education Commissioner Alfred B. Ada said the CNMI government must still meet the federally mandated maintenance-of-effort or MOE funding requirement when providing funds to PSS from the local general fund.
Alfred Ada
Under the MOE rule, the CNMI budget for education must be at least 25% of the locally generated revenue.
The CNMI Constitution also mandates that the Commonwealth government provide PSS 25% of the annual general revenue.
In previous years, education officials said PSS would have to return the federal funding it had received if the CNMI government failed to comply with the MOE requirement.
In an interview on Wednesday, Ada said PSS expects to receive in the week of July 26, 2021 the U.S. Department of Education’s approval of PSS’s expenditure plan for the Education Stabilization Fund that will be provided through the American Rescue Plan Act, in the amount of $160 million spread over a three-year period.
Ada said PSS will use the money to address the impact of Covid-19 on CNMI education.
Ada said PSS must still receive funding from the CNMI general fund in the amount that is compliant with the MOE mandate.
“We have to report to the federal government whether or not we are receiving the MOE funding,” Ada said.
So far, he said, the CNMI government has been up-to-date in transmitting funds based on the government’s 25% obligation to education.
The Department of Finance, he added, has transmitted all the required funds for the first, second and the third quarters of the fiscal year.
He expects PSS to soon receive its share of the general fund for the fourth quarter of the current fiscal year.
For FY 2021, which ends on Sept. 30, PSS was allotted a total of $24.1 million in the CNMI government budget, which amounted to $96.4 million.
Aside from $160 million in federal ESF-ARPA funds, PSS has also received $23 million for the first round of ESF, and $61.7 million for the second round.
