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House OKs 7-year hiring of nonresident SPED personnel
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Posted on May 24 2005
The House of Representatives approved a measure yesterday that grants a seven-year extension to the Public School System to hire nonresident workers for special education and other “hard-to-fill” vacant positions.
The House unanimously passed House Bill 14-61, allowing PSS to hire foreign teachers to teach the Japanese language.
In a committee report, the House of Education Committee said the current law prohibits PSS from hiring nonresident workers but in view of the shortage of SPED teachers, therapists, and foreign language teachers, an exemption is called for.
It recommends that within seven years, PSS and the Northern Marianas College should develop a comprehensive manpower training and educational plan in these areas—SPED, health related fields, and Japanese language instruction—to eliminate the need for such exemption.”
The committee said the local labor pool is presently “incapable of supplying a sufficient number of needed professionals.”
PSS has been pushing for such a measure for over three years now.
In a letter to the committee last April, PSS said the exemption “is sought for a very minute number of 20 positions.”
Currently, the PSS employs 1,256 people who are U.S. citizens, immigrants from the Freely Federated State of Micronesia, or immediate relatives of U.S. citizens.
Education Commissioner Rita H. Inos said PSS is now developing a program that “will train and educate the local youth to become the next generation of SPED-related service providers, health service providers, and foreign language instructors.”
“We project that this will take seven years beginning school year 2005–2006,” said Inos and Board of Education chair Roman C. Benavente.
