Mea culpa—but results still dismal

Tim Thornburgh has brought me to task for an error in the numbers quoted in Sour Grapes of last Monday regarding PSS expenditures. The article I read and relied on for data clearly indicated that CNMI spending was $5,700-plus while federal spending was $8,800-plus, making no mention that the $8,800-plus was what was supposedly spent per student in the U.S. mainland. Mr. Thornburgh is right; I should have found and read the original 126-page audit report instead of relying on a news article describing it. He is wrong, however, in describing the resulting conclusions drawn as faulty.

Most of the conclusions drawn are not in error. The teaching results that PSS attains are still dismal, we still pay a lot and we get very little. The bloated employee roll is still there, causing PSS to bleed financially; quality education still comes from the teachers, not the classroom or the huge gang of administrators; private schools still deliver a much better product at less cost; there are still a lot of very talented people at PSS; and they are still being held back by a dinosaur of a school system; there is still a cure; and privatizing PSS to maximize teaching results is still a good idea.

As it turns out, I am glad I was wrong. While it does not make the PSS teaching results any less dismal, or their spending habits any less wasteful, at least it is costing us less than I thought. Although I must point out that for the amount spent per student in PSS government schools ($5,700-plus per student) we are paying only slightly more than the tuition for the most expensive private schools here on Saipan instead of a lot more. I guess there is consolation in that. But not much.

There is also not much consolation in the fact that the $5,700 spent per student ignores the $88 million-plus spent on buildings and land covered by a $51 million bond issue that has to be paid back, nor does it include the horrendous interest we pay on that debt. The real cost per student is much higher than the $5,700-plus claimed by PSS via some clever balance sheet juggling. To claim the building as assets (and even to claim the depreciation on them) while not showing the debt associated with them as a liability or as an expense is a bit shady to say the least. Plus it hides the real cost of instructing our students.

Thanks for pointing out my research error Mr. Thornburgh. It is a valuable lesson, and one I will remember.

Bruce A. Bateman
Tanapag, Saipan