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Here's your SCUP Link on 'Maintenance of Effort' Funding an Issue for Feds and States

What to do when the federal government gives money for higher ed to a state, but then the state turns around and uses that for stopgap, or to underwrite programs in some way that allows the sate to diminish its future funding? 

An emerging policy solution to counter states’ funding cuts to their public higher education systems is the inclusion of “maintenance of effort” (MOE) provisions in federal legislation. These provisions stipulate that the federal government will offer states a financial incentive in exchange for their “maintenance” of a prescribed level of funding “effort.” This reflects a changing dynamic in higher education finance, given that the federal government has not traditionally been involved in efforts to make college affordable, aside from funding federal student aid programs. The use of MOE provisions to protect state appropriations to higher education also establishes federal expectations of states similar to those formed in 1965 with the passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA); this has proven effective in preventing many states from supplanting state funding commitments to elementary and secondary education.