Gov. Juan N. Babauta has signed a bill into law that calls for the creation of a technical education program in the CNMI. The program shall initially be offered at Marianas High School, Tinian High School, and Rota High School.<\/p>\n
In signing House Bill 14-210, Babauta said the legislation brings a focused approach to quality technical and vocational education in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis program, when implemented will serve the dual purpose of providing employment to our resident population, as well as reducing our reliance on nonresident labor,\u201d said the governor.<\/p>\n
The program, which may eventually be expanded to other schools, aims to train students to prepare them for skilled jobs in the community.<\/p>\n
Based on the estimate provided by the Public School System, some $2 million is needed to develop a technical program. The bill provides that such funding would come from 10 percent of the jackpot tax, $25 from every nonresident worker registration and renewal fee \u201cas well as any local appropriations and federal grants for vocational education.\u201d<\/p>\n
Babauta said the Department of Finance estimates the jackpot tax to generate approximately $1.1 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis presents a dilemma,\u201d he said, citing that, under the continuing resolution, these revenues are part of the revenue estimates for 2005 and have already been fully appropriated.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf revenues are diverted to this new program, other critical services will need to go unfunded,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Further, he said that if these revenues were to be used for the technical education program, the shortfall would reach $900,000.<\/p>\n
The governor also echoed PSS\u2019 concerns that the bill lacks specificity with respect to inter-agency cooperation and shared funding and the need to coordinate with existing vocational and job placement programs.<\/p>\n
He asked the Legislature to consider the concerns and incorporate them into any future amendments.<\/p>\n
\u201cI sign this measure into law because of this administration\u2019s unqualified commitment to education as the key to improving the lives and living standards of our community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He urged the Legislature to consider the funding needs in its future budget deliberations.<\/p>\n
The bill, authored by House Education Committee chair Rep. Justo Quitugua, became Public Law 14-54.<\/p>\n
The bill\u2019s original proposal was for a pilot technical school only on Saipan.<\/p>\n
Quitugua said there is a need to integrate technical curriculum in public high schools to prepare students for higher education or immediate employment.<\/p>\n
It said that many students who are not inclined to pursue higher education are experiencing tremendous difficulty in finding jobs in the Commonwealth for lack of technical skills or training.<\/p>\n
The bill was introduced early this year based on a PSS survey indicating that 88 percent responded favorably to the creation of a technical school.<\/p>\n
The bill seeks to establish a curriculum development advisory committee to recommend courses that would be taught at the technical school.<\/p>\n
According to the bill, the Education commissioner would appoint teachers and program administrators to the committee from parent-teacher associations of public high schools, Saipan Chamber of Commerce, Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands, Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association, Saipan Rotary Club, Northern Marianas College, and other groups. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gov. Juan N. Babauta has signed a bill into law that calls for the creation of a technical education program in the CNMI. The program shall initially be offered at Marianas High School, Tinian High School, and Rota High School.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87346","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}