THE LAW
The federal statute that requires states to match land-grant funds one dollar for one dollar, and how the shortfall against that obligation is calculated.
THE FEDERAL MATCHING STATUTE
Federal land-grant funding to an 1890 institution does not arrive unconditionally. Under the governing provisions of the land-grant statutes, a state that accepts these federal funds must commit a matching share of its own appropriations to the institution. The match is not a courtesy. It is a condition of the grant, and a state that takes the federal money accepts the obligation that comes with it.
THE 1:1 OBLIGATION
The required match is one to one: for the covered federal appropriations to an 1890 land-grant university, the state must appropriate an equal amount. States may seek a waiver of the match in a given year, but a waiver is a documented exception, not a silent default, and the cumulative record shows where the required match was never made. The shortfall is what those unmatched dollars add up to.
HOW THE SHORTFALL IS CALCULATED
The shortfall is the difference between the match required by statute and the appropriations states actually made, summed across the shortfall period.
The cumulative documented matching shortfall owed to the 1890 land-grant institutions.
SOURCE: USDA / U.S. DEPT. OF EDUCATION SECRETARIES LETTERS, 2023