The CNMI Government reportedly owes 10 million US dollars in maintenance-of-effort funding to the territory's public school system and Northern Marianas College.
The Northern Marianas delegate to the US Congress, Gregorio Kilili Sablan says a U.S. Department of Education official is expected in the Commonwealth shortly and the maintenance- of-effort issue will be among the issues debated.
Maintenance-of-effort funding is a requirement made by the Education Department when it gave the CNMI 44 million US dollars under the American Recovery Reinvestment Act in 2009.
It mandates the local government to allocate 40 cents in each dollar of its overall Budget to public education.
