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Educators, lawmakers meet to strengthen education system
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Posted on Oct 04 2000
By Marian A. Maraya
Staff Reporter
In what appears to be a major step towards a better partnership, Board of Education members and House leaders agreed yesterday to hold periodic dialogues aimed at creating collective solutions to pressing education concerns.
The monthly forum has been envisioned to gather inputs from both parties on future legislation that may have direct or indirect effect on the education sector.
BOE Vice Chair Roman Benavente said the apparent disagreements between education officials and legislators on some of the bills introduced in the House without consultation from the Board has paved the way for the holding of the monthly meeting.
“What triggered this was the fact that we have been seeing numbers of [education-related] bills being introduced one after another,” said the BOE member.
Mr. Benavente said the move is designed to iron out conflicts and establish solid collaborative efforts between education officials and legislative leaders.
He said that pressing education concerns are best addressed through collaboration and not through confrontation.
“We want to work hand in hand in creating solutions that would coincide with everyone’s interest. We want to open up lines of communication and have a good working relationship in a way that would not infringe the board’s autonomy,” said Mr. Benavente.
The BOE vice chair also encouraged not only House leaders but also the Senate to take part in the scheduled monthly meetings. “We are here to work only for one interest…and that’s the public interest.”
This is the first time that both the legislative leaders and the public education sector have initiated steps to conduct meetings on a regular basis.
In this light, the House Committee on Education has vowed to place under high consideration the board’s input and recommendations before acting on any education bill.
