Dankulo na si yuus maase from the teachers to the Legislature

I want to extend a dankulo na si yuus maase to the Legislature on behalf of all public school teachers for considering to give PSS teachers 50 percent of the “unclaimed lottery funds.” I want to extend a special thanks to Senate President Joaquin Adriano and senators Pete Reyes, Luis Crisostimo, Henry San Nicolas, Thomas Villagomez and the other senators who exercised wisdom and supported the changes in the bill. I also want to thank Rep. Justo Quitugua for exercising the wisdom to reconsider the bill and to agree to dividing the money between the present teachers at PSS and the future teachers in the Teacher Scholarship Program. Mr. Quitugua’s support virtually assures that the bill will now become law if the Senate will divide the money equally because everyone should know the governor is going to approve the bill when it reaches him, given his record on education.

I will be making only one “strongly” recommended change on behalf of teachers. The expenditure authority was originally under the BOE Teacher Rep and it was changed to the Commissioner of Education because of legal concerns. I am requesting that such authority be returned to the BOE, giving the BOE Teacher Rep “sole approval authority” for spending, subject to a concurring signature by the BOE chair for ethics and accountability purposes. This change will place the funds under the existing accountability system for spending at PSS.

The whole idea was for teachers to have complete control over the prioritization and use of the funds—not the Education Commissioner (no disrespect intended). The commissioner already has enough on her plate controlling the school system’s budget. The funds should augment the efforts of the commissioner by helping present and future teachers and not become part of the commissioner’s plans for spending on maintenance. Majority of the funds will go directly to classroom necessities that are not being supplied by PSS, with only a small portion being used for education activities outside the classroom.

I’m sure all 273 teachers that signed up to support me in the election and signed the petition supporting PSS teachers getting the money are all excited by the decision of the Legislature to give PSS teachers half of the money. Teachers also owe their fellow teachers who did sign the petition a dankulo na si yuus maase because it was their signatures that convinced the Senate. I truly hope the teachers who didn’t sign the petition can now see the importance and the power of unity among teachers. Again, thank you, senators.

Ambrose Bennett
Teacher Representative