Let’s have choice

“It is up to the people to decide,” say the PSS cronies in the CNMI legislature. Let the people decide the fate of the 25 percent budget share proposal for the public school system, they tell us.

The argument is a spurious one, of course. For they desperately want the measure to pass. We can be sure that they would not be advancing the referendum if they did not want the voters to approve it.

Yet, for all their talk about letting the people decide, the PSS bureaucrats and theircronies in the legislature are not about empowering people with choice. If they supported choice, if they really wanted the people to decide, they would be advancing another proposal for the public to approve: the proposal for school choice via school vouchers.

But they would not dare do that because they are afraid of losing the status quo. In fact, the only reason the PSS cronies in the legislature want a public vote on the PSS budget increase is because of the CNMI constitution, which specifically stipulates what the CNMI budget allocation for public education should be: 15 percent.

Believe me, if they could have their way, I am sure the public education establishment would raise the PSS allocation to 45 or 50 percent of the CNMI budget–or perhaps even more than that if they thought for a moment that they could actually get away with it. After all, nothing is more important than education, even if the kids are not being properly educated.
As usual, only more government money would fix the problem. Why, if it were not for the pesky CNMI Constitution, they would have probably already moved to raise the PSS’ allocation to at least 25 percent of the annual budget without our direct consent.

As things stand today, the Public School System is already getting the biggest share of the CNMI budget–just over $40 million, which is more than 15% of a $222 million budget. In addition to these millions of dollars from our local coffers, the federal government adds a few million dollars more every year. But still this is not nearly enough to cover travel expenses alone (about which the Public Auditor’s Office has more on).

The Public School System wants to hog fully 25 percent of our tax revenues. In a $222 million CNMI government budget (and growing through deficits), that would amount to more than $55 million. That is utterly unacceptable.

Such costs could easily be drastically reduced through school vouchers. Each parent would receive about $2,500 for each child’s education. The government would then not have to hire teachers or bureaucrats. Each “public” school would have to compete for vouchers in a completely free, unsubsidized market.

How about it? Let’s put school vouchers on the ballot. Let the people decide, not the self-interested politicians and bureaucrats who have failed us and yet still want more of our precious tax dollars.