Cash comes calling

The room simply bursts with talents. There was the pair of Jennifer Paras and Dino Gammau dusting off and hunching over in the tedious task of disassembling and assembling a copier machine. Then there was the trio of Nicole Perez, Jennifer Rabauliman and Ronaldo Malabanan hunkering down on a broken Casio stereo. There, too, was the tandem of Patrick Torres and Allan Torres uploading photos from an electronic camera for an Internet design upgrade. Finally there was Starzane Stevenson frowning in concentration on the computer keyboard for a written report in robotics. Welcome to the 2+2 electronics class.

The enthusiasm of the students, all from Marianas High School, escaped through their faces. “I like to experiment on a remote control, you know, like the one we use for TV,” said Stevenson, poring over a soccer robot manual and explaining in meticulous detail and with little techno-speak what robotics exactly meant. So there he was, living out his dream in a small classroom — at least while he could though.

Government’s deep financial cuts had spurred anxiety that the ax could take a swat on the 2+2 program, a nascent vocational-training scheme that lets entrants earn their credits, in part, through five-week shifts in private companies for a one-year on-the-job training. Even instructor Jerry McVicar was unsure about his future.
With the Public School System terminating teachers, McVicar wondered if “I might be one of them.”

The 2+2 program, a partnership between the PSS and the Northern Marianas College, builds on the confidence of students, said Dr. John “Jack” Angello, who had been chiefly responsible in setting the program in train. “We’re trying to get them interested at the right age and provide transition into college when life starts to open up for them.” So if, for instance, a student forgoes with college — as 80 percent of high school students do — then the training will have provided a springboard for a good job. If, on the other hand, a student pursues college, then the training will have also set a defined career path. “It’s a win-win situation,” Angello said.
More so because, in their own little way, the students had already saved the PSS the costs for preventive maintenance and minor repairs of computers, McVicar said.

About 100 students have signed on the program, which started January 1998. They took up a variety of fields — from construction to electronics, to basic electricity. Angello said the program could well form as launch pad for the government’s effort at phasing in local workers. Consider, for example, that if the students pulled through the training, their addition would mean 100 less foreign workers in the labor force. With the three-year residency limitation ranged against foreign workers, Angello said, the government ought to build a pool of local talents to fill the void.

Lest we stray into jumping the gun on either the finance department or the governor, no one has as yet come out beyond mere indication that the 2+2 program would get the chop. Angello’s fears were founded on press statements from finance that the government, hobbled by a recession, might be unable to continue to dispense with educational assistance grants. Release of grants, the nature that funds the 2+2, is by statute hinged on convenience with money. So finance can, of course, discontinue them if it so deems fit. The consequence will be fatal for 2+2.

Amid the financial gloom, however, an untapped source of federal funds emerged as could possibly provide the silver lining. Angello said millions could be had from the School-to-Work program, something that could more than ensure continuity of 2+2. Palau, he said, received $450,000 from that program. Angello estimates that PSS stands a chance of securing $2 million since the CNMI is five times the size of Palau. Hawaii had received $10.2 million in 1995, documents show.

Unfortunately for the CNMI, it appeared that PSS had not done enough to benefit from the STW program, begun in 1994 throughout most of the states. Harry Drier, the fed’s point man in the program, wrote two Fridays ago that PSS, in effect, passed up its share of STW funds because it had not asked for them in the first place. Drier said PSS neither used the allocation for 1998-1999 nor had requested to carry the unspent funds forward to 1999-2000. “From a straight legal point of view, the CNMI, by default, told STW that you didn’t want the old monies . . . or any new allocation,” Drier’s letter states.

To obtain the funds, a mixture of “real pressure” and “compassionate plea” might be needed, Drier said. That job, he added, may be cut out for a “congressional leader.” May those on whose court now the ball lies get the right answer for 2+2.