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PSS: Private schools complying with feds
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Posted on Dec 04 2006
The Public School System clarified yesterday that private schools in the CNMI comply with the requirements of the federal government.
PSS Federal Program advisor Tim Thornburgh contradicted reports that private schools in the Commonwealth have no means to comply with the U.S. Department of Education. Thornburgh said: “This is not true. I meet with the private schools once a month.”
He added that private schools in the CNMI duly submit their Student Achievement Test data regularly.
“Private schools have done a very good job in complying with the No Child Left Behind [Act of 2001],” he said.
Teacher representative Ambrose M. Bennett had raised the issue to the board and said an ad hoc committee is necessary to provide solutions to the dilemma. The board is looking at this possibility. The ad hoc committee will be initially composed of BOE members and Coalition of Private School members.
Thornburgh said, though, that the ad hoc panel being proposed by Coalition of Private Schools president Scott Norman has nothing to do with the federal requirements. He said the proposed committee was intended to address concerns regarding the involvement of PSS and the BOE in private school concerns.
Thornburgh said that during last month’s USDE Data Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, the federal government commended the CNMI for the academic achievement of its students. “Both PSS and the private schools are doing a very good job,” he added.
Norman said the initial report on the purpose of the ad hoc panel was “totally false.” He added that private schools are mandated to comply with federal laws.
Norman said that private schools are also dependent on federal funding extended to them yearly. He said the PSS Federal Programs Office could prove the report wrong. “The federal office helps us comply,” he said.
He added the ad hoc committee was just to address some local issues among PSS, BOE and private schools. “The memo is a state issue,” he said.
