§3331 Administrative provisions

Summary

Federal adult education funds must add to — not replace — state or local money for adult education. An agency can get these federal funds for a given year only if its spending per student or total spending in the second year before that year was at least 90% of what it spent in the third year before that year. If spending fell from one year to the next, the Secretary will measure how much it fell and cut that agency’s federal payment by the smaller of the percentage drops. When checking spending, the Secretary will ignore building costs and one‑time project expenses. If the total federal amount for the program goes down, the agency’s required spending to avoid a cut is lowered by the same percentage. The Secretary may waive these rules for no more than 1 fiscal year for extreme events (for example, a natural disaster or a sudden big drop in state funds). If a waiver is granted, the required effort is not reduced in the following year because of that waiver.