The local Department of Education (ASDOE) is in the process of preparing and submitting its application for funding under the U.S. Department of Education’s Consolidated Grant to the Insular Areas for fiscal year 2017. 

ASDOE director Dr. Ruth Matagi-Tofiga says the Consolidated Grant is now on a three-year cycle.

However, she says the ASDOE is still required to submit an Annual Performance Report that includes the financial and performance information on the progress in implementing the Consolidated Grant.

Matagi-Tofiga has been informed that ASDOE is receiving a $24.7 million (or $24,702,426) as the total amount eligible for Consolidated Grant funding in FY 2017, the beginning of the three-year cycle and this is a $6 million increase from 2016.

“The Consolidated Grant covers various programs that support career and technical education, improving teaching and learning, community learning centers, and improving the quality of our teachers and school leaders among our local education agencies, which include the private schools,” Matagi-Tofiga said late last week.

As previously reported by Samoa News, the Consolidated Grant is the ASDOE’s largest federal grant funding in educational funding from USDOE.

According to the ASG FY 2016 budget document, ASDOE received just over $17.05 million in fiscal year 2016 under the Consolidated Grant. ASDOE grant funding in FY 2016 totals $46.03 million — which includes $19.21 million for the School Lunch Program, funded by the US Agriculture Department.

Of the total $66.70 million for ASDOE’s fiscal year 2016 budget, $20.66 million comes from local revenue, according to the FY 2016 ASG budget document.