PSS sees light on $5.2M CIF promise

The Public School System is finally seeing the light on the government’s promise to allot $20-plus million from the Compact Impact Fund to the school system for four years.

Board of Education chair Roman C. Benavente and secretary and treasurer Marja Lee Taitano told the Saipan Tribune yesterday that the promise that Gov. Juan N. Babauta made in December 2004 will finally be fulfilled. The promise was to allot the $5.2 million that the CNMI will get every year in Compact Impact funds to PSS. The funding will be given out in four years, for a total of more than $20 million.

Taitano said the board, together with Commissioner of Education Rita H. Inos and BOE vice chair Dino Jones, met with the governor last Wednesday morning. Officials from the U.S. Department of Education also attended the meeting. Benavente said the governor relayed the good news to PSS.

Benavente said the governor is transferring the funds through the Office of Insular Affairs. The fund will be transferred to PSS across four years, amounting to more than $20 million in operational funds for the school system.

He said that, as soon as the PSS submits a complete seven-year plan to the governor, the governor would approve and forward it to the Office of Insular Affairs, which will review and approve the release of the funding.

“The transfer is assured for four years and the OIA will be the one to remit the fund to the PSS,” Benavente said.

The board chair said the proposed procedure would guarantee PSS that it gets the funding continuously for four years. He said the governor told them that the OIA already agreed to the arrangement.

Benavente said that, with all the criticisms the incumbent governor is receiving, the announcement of the possible release of the funding for PSS puts the education system in a very positive perspective. “He has always been very supportive to the education.”

Taitano said that, by going through the OIA to guarantee the release of the funds, politicking is eliminated. “No political interference,” she said.

She said the PSS’ seven-year plan is almost finished as it is already two-thirds complete. She said the PSS must have a very thorough and complete plan before forwarding it to the governor, then to OIA. Taitano said the plan concentrates on the students as they have already secured land to build new schools.

Benavente said the BOE is working side by side with the governor to achieve quality education in the CNMI.