Recently, the U.S. Department of Education announced that some states will receive a supplemental Perkins Basic State Grant allocation to offset the cut that occurred last fall. As we have reported, Congress passed a short-term funding measure in September to avoid a government shutdown. This stopgap funding bill included an across-the-board cut to keep overall spending within the required budget caps for the year. Because of the way Perkins funds are budgeted and dispersed, the cut (a total of $5.5 million overall) impacted Perkins Basic State Grant advance funding that began rolling out to states on October 1. As a result, 30 states saw reductions in their Perkins October allocations. Congress finally passed a full-year funding bill that restored this cut in May, and the department has now made those supplemental funds available to states.
Comments