Sen. Justo Quitugua (Ind-Saipan) is awaiting comments from the Public School System that he would integrate in a bill that proposes to allow PSS to hire non-U.S. citizens as teachers.<\/p>\n
Quitugua, chairman of the Senate Committee on Education and Youth Affairs, said he has already introduced Senate Bill 19-55, which seeks to help PSS address its shortage of teachers for certain courses or subjects including mathematics, science, engineering, and special education.<\/p>\n
Currently, CNMI laws do not allow PSS to hire non-U.S. residents.<\/p>\n
Quitugua explained that there was a statute way back banning the hiring of non-U.S. residents for government agencies, but due to a massive manpower shortage, particularly for PSS and the Commonwealth Utilities Corp., he reintroduced a bill allowing the agencies to hire from outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bill had a sunset provision [of five years] to allow the agencies to train locals, but this provision also expired,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said PSS is \u201chaving a hard time hiring for math, science, and special education teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quitugua said the bill would allow CW workers or \u201canyone who has the qualifications\u201d for these courses.<\/p>\n
The lawmaker said S.B. 19-55 will be part of the agenda for tomorrow\u2019s Senate session on Rota.<\/p>\n
PSS supports the proposed legislation, with Education Commissioner Rita Sablan herself expressing support for the bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cPSS is always looking for highly qualified personnel. So when there\u2019s a shortfall, we have to go beyond our parameters, and it seems that in the CNMI, we do not have the pool that we need,\u201d Sablan said.<\/p>\n
She added that the PSS \u201cwould like to have the ability to recruit from outside the U.S. territory or the U.S. mainland for that matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there are qualified [teachers], we would like to invite them to work with PSS,\u201d Sablan said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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