Share unclaimed lottery money with current teachers—Bennett

Teacher Representative Ambrose Bennett has called on the House of Representatives not to put all unclaimed lottery money on the teacher scholarship program, saying that current teachers also deserve that kind of assistance.

“The present condition for teachers working with students are at an all-time low when it comes to having the necessary resource materials and other vital supplies…There’s no need for the scholarship to be given all the money and future money because it only needs funding one year at a time,” said Bennett.

He made the statement upon learning that the House Education Committee favors allocating over $24,000 in unclaimed lottery money to the teacher education program scholarship.

The money was the accumulated amount of unclaimed lottery prizes from 1998 to March 2004.

Committee chair Rep. Justo Quitugua had also introduced a bill providing that all unclaimed lottery prizes in the future should go to the teacher scholarship program, which provides funding assistance to students taking up education courses.

Bennett had earlier petitioned the committee to place the amount under a teacher representative special account for the use of teachers.

“The funds sat there idle for over two years until teachers discovered it and asked that it be allocated for their classroom-related uses,” he said.

In a statement, Bennett said he hopes that the Senate and other members of the House of Representatives display “more wisdom and respect for the present working condition of teachers.

“Helping the scholarship fund is a noble cause but the current teachers also need help. Because we care about the scholarship, we believe it would be better to divide the money equally between the program and the current teachers,” he said.

He said school teacher representatives are doing signature campaigns to petition the Legislature on the issue.

“We’re certainly disappointed but we’re truly hopeful that this matter can be worked out,” he said.

Quitugua’s bill calls for the creation of a Lottery Commission for unclaimed prizes. It provides that all unclaimed prizes shall be deposited in the postsecondary teacher education program scholarship account to be created by the Secretary of Finance.

The CNMI Scholarship administrator shall be the expenditure authority of the funds.