A modest proposal

The Saipan Tribune’s Sept. 6 coverage of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans was particularly good. The paper reported in depth on not only the terrible conditions in America’s vital southern seaport of New Orleans, but also added related stories about the impact this disaster is having on the Gulf of Mexico and its oil industry, the destruction in the lower Mississippi Valley, the impact on the surrounding states, and the impact on national and international social and economic, public and private sectors. No doubt many schoolteachers are using your paper as a classroom tool in the several different subjects that relate to this terrible national disaster. Thank you for giving our teachers this excellent, free, supplementary material.

There is one article that might be of particular importance to CNMI public officials. One of the page 16 headlines reads “Refugees from Katrina scraping for work.” Besides being out of their homes, these people are without a source of income for their families. They are running to the nearest city, or to families and friends around the nation, looking for a place to live and a way to make a living for their family again.

The article reads, “Thousands of evacuees from ravaged coastal areas began scraping for work this week . . . ”

“Hundreds of thousands of people were thrown out of work by the storm.”

“State and local officials in Texas, Tennessee, Georgia and other states with a refugee influx are also setting up programs to link refugees with employers.”

“There are a lot more people looking than there are jobs, . . .”

The CNMI can help, and help itself at the same time. Out of those hundreds of thousands of people who are out of work and need help, there must be hundreds of schoolteachers, special education teachers, nurses, public accountants and other professionals that the CNMI needs.

The CNMI Public School System might consider donating to the national effort by helping these displaced American professionals find a job, here in the Marianas, just like the other states and territories are doing, by offering contracts to teachers and other education professionals whose homes and schools were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

There are, or were, some excellent school districts among the neighborhoods of New Orleans and its suburbs and surrounding towns. Those schoolteachers, guidance councilors, librarians, principals and other professionals are out of work and out of a home. They may very well enjoy a stint in the Marianas, while their homes and schools in New Orleans and the Southern Mississippi Valley are rebuilt over the next several years.

Tinian Junior/Senior High School alone could use seven or eight experienced, fully-qualified teachers and a professional career/college guidance council to fill the school’s current shortages.

Certainly PSS could furnish an experienced Human Resources Officer to interview and screen applicants to make sure we get the right teachers and other professionals we need at every school in the CNMI.

This recruiting can be done. Mrs. Rita Sablan did an excellent job filling 168 vacancies in one year when PSS chose comply with Public Law 7-45 and not to hire nonresident employees. PSS clearly does not need to hire that many people now, but it is also clearly short of teachers and other education professionals right now.

There is also no question that helping these Americans from the Mississippi Valley is the right thing to do. It would benefit the CNMI’s largely American funded public school system and the people of the CNMI in general.

There is little doubt that Governor Babauta could and would help PSS by using his close ties with President Bush to clear an immediate channel of communications with the proper authorities on the mainland.

No doubt, other states and territories are already doing this to help the people displaced by Hurricane Katrina, and fill their professional needs. There is no reason why the CNMI could not or should not do the same. It is very likely that many of those people who are seeking jobs outside their devastated home communities in Mississippi and Louisiana might choose to work in the Northern Mariana Islands, rather that some other location, if they knew the opportunity was available. For the sake of these Americans in need, and for sake of the CNMI Public School System, somebody should take the initiative.

Again Mr. Editor, excellent paper on Tuesday.

Don Farrell
Tinian