U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-9) today met with Gov. Jay Nixon in Jefferson City seeking support for the Congressman’s call for a “complete fix” to a confusing and unnecessary federal requirement that would compel up to 29 Missouri school districts to convert their entire accounting systems. The governor promised his help on this issue.  

This federal accounting requirement conflicts with existing state standards and would result in higher costs for Missouri school districts and students attending adult programs at Missouri career centers. At a time of historic unemployment, Luetkemeyer conveyed to the governor that it doesn’t make sense to make it more difficult for individuals to obtain financial aid when working to get new training through career centers. 

“The last thing we need right now is the Department of Education’s saddling Missouri schools with more uncertainty at a time when they are already strapped for cash, and I felt it was important that Governor Nixon hear that many Missouri school districts, particularly in rural areas, may choose to close their adult career center programs rather than changing the entire district’s accounting system to comply with this single federal regulation,” Luetkemeyer said. “I look forward to continuing to work with the entire congressional delegation and state officials on behalf of our students in dealing with these troubling government requirements.” 

Since 1997, a federal regulation has stipulated that postsecondary education institutions applying for Title IV funds must submit annual financial statements to the Department of Education prepared on an accrual basis, a method of accounting. For nearly 15 years, the Department of Education has granted an extension to Missouri career centers to operate under their current reporting system -- cash accounting -- because Missouri allows school districts to adopt any comprehensive basis of accounting. Missouri is unique from many states in that many of its career centers are part of local school districts.  Interestingly, the cash basis of accounting has traditionally been used in federal budgeting.  According to a recent GAO report, the cash basis of accounting ‘is widely used and accepted measure of the government’s effect on current financial markets.’  Because the time between the occurrence of a transaction that commits the federal government to make a payment and the cash flow to make the payment is relatively short for many program areas, the cash measure provides information about the federal government’s total commitment at the time budget decisions are made for these programs.  Because cash can be tracked throughout the year, it can be useful for controlling spending.

The meeting with Nixon at the Missouri Capitol comes a week after Luetkemeyer met personally with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan on the issue. Joining Luetkemeyer at that meeting on March 26 were U.S. Reps. Jo Ann Emerson, Billy Long, Vicky Hartzler and Emanuel Cleaver.

Since Luetkemeyer and his colleagues have been in discussions with the Department on this issue, two schools have decided to no longer offer adult programs and one school district has decided not to apply for Title IV funds, which means students wouldn’t have the opportunity to receive federal financial aid. Luetkemeyer is concerned that this trend will continue and could, in particular, immensely affect adult practical nursing programs.  Each year, career centers in Missouri turn out an average of 500 LPNs.