BOE didn’t ask to have oversight on private schools

The provision that would give the CNMI State Board of Education oversight and licensing powers over private schools that was included in a bill that will overhaul the Education Act of 1998 did not come from the board itself.

BOE chair Herman Guerrero said in a recent board meeting that he “did not know where that came from.”

“It was not in the proposed bill that we originally submitted to the Legislature. Somehow, members of the Legislature felt that there is a need for certain oversight responsibilities,” Guerrero said in an interview.

Guerrero commended Coalition of Private Schools president and BOE’s non-public school representative Galvin Deleon Guerrero for organizing the coalition and said that they are working together.

“Hopefully the coalition will be policing among themselves and will bring education standards comparable. I’m sure that will be great for every child in the Commonwealth regardless of race or nationality,” Guerrero said.

Asked if the board supports the provision in the bill, Guerrero said: “In a sense, the language is…It’s not with PSS because we don’t license them. It’s really the Department of Commerce that licenses them. If they already licensed them, let them be the one to do the responsibilities.”

Among the bill’s amendments grant power to the education board in the establishment of non-public schools in the CNMI and how these non-public schools can get government assistance.

It adds that anyone who wants to establish or operate a nonpublic school must submit an application for a charter to be approved and issued by the education board and that the applicant must satisfy the board’s curriculum, building safety, health, sanitation, and any other standards required by the CNMI or state board.

The bill has been tabled after the coalition asked for time to review and comment on these provisions.

Guerrero said it will be okay “as long as somebody is certifying that they have met the health and safety standards.”

He added that he is also not interested in looking at the curriculum as long as the schools are meeting certain standards as well as being recognized nationally, like PSS and some private schools.

However, Guerrero noted that they would like for private schools to be more transparent.

“I would like to see more openness and transparency also at the private school. I think everybody deserves to know what’s going on. They don’t like public, government interference, well, if you don’t like public interference then you shouldn’t accept [education tax credits],” Guerrero said.