{"id":181143,"date":"2014-10-07T04:00:27","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T18:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=181143"},"modified":"2014-10-07T04:00:27","modified_gmt":"2014-10-06T18:00:27","slug":"cnmi-leaders-urged-invest-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/cnmi-leaders-urged-invest-future\/","title":{"rendered":"CNMI leaders urged to \u2018invest in the future\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Henry<\/a>
Henry I. Sablan and Elizabeth Rechebai were honored for their years of service to the Public School System at the proclamation signing of Education Month on Friday. (Dennis B. Chan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nLocal investment in students, children, and the community\u2019s future were on the minds of leaders at the proclamation signing for Education Month on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I were a student I would ask myself: \u2018Is my education worth an investment of the Commonwealth?\u2019 We need to look at it from that perspective,\u201d Board of Education chair Herman Guerrero said after the proclamation signing.<\/p>\n

On the voter\u2019s table next month is House Legislative Initiative 18-12, which guarantees a minimal funding of no less than 25 percent percent of local appropriations for the Public School System\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

Guerrero in inviting Commonwealth leaders to visit the schools. <\/p>\n

He emphasized that \u201cit\u2019s the adults that make the difference\u201d when it comes to voting, and encouraged voters to approach education leaders if they want to learn more about the purpose of the initiative.<\/p>\n

He pointed to PSS\u2019 push to have full-time kindergarten classes in all its schools.<\/p>\n

Koblerville Elementary School or Garapan Elementary School are some of the schools that can only offer double-sessions during the day, for example, while San Vicente Elementary School and Kagman Elementary have full-day sessions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe there is inequity and I believe every child should have the benefits of full-kinder, and not just on a split session,\u201d Guerrero said.<\/p>\n

Board member Tanya King echoed Guerrero\u2019s emphasis on investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at countries where students are excelling, the governments invest a tremendous [amount] of their revenue in education,\u201d she said. \u201cThe greatest investment that we can possibly put is in our children.\u201d <\/p>\n

Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP), who participated with students on Rota via videoconference, said the school system is where it is today through the contributions of its predecessors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe investment in education makes changes in generations after generations,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we are in the second generation of the Commonwealth and if we could make improvements in the education and lives of our people now, the next generation of leadership, the third generation, can do much more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Former education commissioner Elizabeth D. Rechebai, who was at the event, said, \u201cPSS has come a long way\u201d since her time. <\/p>\n

Another former education commissioner, Henry I. Sablan, called their generation \u201cthe carvers of the canoe of education.\u201d He noted the constraints in the government with its many obligations and minimal budget but also said \u201cthere is no excuse\u201d for leaders not to provide the most for the education of children.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s theme for Education Month is \u201cGrab the Wheels of Education\u2026Steer your Way to Success.\u201d<\/p>\n

The month\u2019s events will culminate on Oct. 24, Education Day, when the CNMI Teacher of the Year is announced that day.<\/p>\n

Initially slated for Oct. 1, the proclamation was pushed back due to last\u2019s week typhoon watch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local investment in students, children, and the community\u2019s future were on the minds of leaders…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":181174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[20,26,37,186],"class_list":["post-181143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-budget","tag-cnmi","tag-education-2","tag-initiative"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}