A Tinian senator believes that since the Public School System requests for a budget that is over the constitutionally mandated minimum, then it\u2019s high time that the Legislature review the mandate.<\/p>\n
Sen. Francisco Cruz (R-Tinian) during yesterday\u2019s PSS budget hearing for their fiscal year 2019 budget said that the CNMI Constitution\u2019s mandate of 25 percent general funds entitled to PSS needs to be reviewed since they request for an annual budget well above the mandate. The Senate Committee on Fiscal Affairs chaired by Sen. Jude U. Hofschneider (R-Tinian) conducted the public hearing.<\/p>\n
For fiscal year 2019, PSS is asking for $55 million, while Gov. Ralph DLG Torres\u2019 budget proposal was at $41.8 million. The House of Representatives last week passed Rep. Angel A. Demapan\u2019s (R-Saipan) House Bill 20-173 on first and final reading. The legislation concurred with Torres\u2019 proposal for PSS.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the case for every budget\u2014PSS still needs more than 25 percent. I believe that the Legislature may need to pass another initiative to get [PSS] more than 25 percent every year so that PSS will be satisfied,\u201d Cruz said before the committee and representatives of PSS. Cruz also clarified that he was in support of PSS and their financial needs.<\/p>\n
Board of Education member Herman Guerrero rebutted that the 25 percent mandate of the CNMI Constitution was merely the minimum appropriation allowed for PSS.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Legislature can give us more than that. [The constitutional mandate] is only a guarantee that PSS is properly funded,\u201d Guerrero said.<\/p>\n
PSS, in their budget hearing, reported that their focuses for this year include the improvement of school facilities and amenities; making investments on instructional materials; the retention and recruitment efforts for teachers through attractive compensation; and joining the fight against obesity.<\/p>\n
Acting PSS commissioner Jackie Quitugua also added that mental health security of students also remains a priority for the PSS.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need now to pay attention how we address\u2026everyone that exists on campus to be able to provide 100 percent quality support for our children,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe try our very best to make do with what we have,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Tinian senator believes that since the Public School System requests for a budget that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[20,12949,13136,40],"class_list":["post-279768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-budget","tag-fiscal-affairs","tag-jackie-quitugua","tag-pss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279768","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279768\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}