Ada says BOE will pursue $10.3M owed by NMI govt

The Board of Education wants to run after the $10.3 million owed by the CNMI government, according to a key member of the board.

BOE chair Marylou Ada said at the BOE meeting last Thursday that the board would press ahead with efforts to go after the maintenance-of-effort funding owed the Public School System.

The CNMI received $44 million under the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund in 2009, of which $32.3 million was for public education. One of the conditions for this grant was that PSS must be given a specific share in the overall budget of the CNMI government, otherwise known as the MOE. At the time, this was equivalent to 40 cents to a dollar or 25 percent of the overall CNMI government budget.

What used to be a debt of about $4 million has ballooned to about $10.3 million, an amount of money that the BOE has yet to see.

“We are going to ask the current governor that we have to be paid, it is due to us,” said Ada.

The federal government has already come out with an opinion on the debt, saying the CNMI government “must pay the Public School System $10 million for the MOE.”

According to Ada, BOE budgets have not reflected this debt.

Ada said if the CNMI government denies to pay this debt, the BOE would request the U.S. Department of Education to warn the CNMI government that there are certain ramifications should the CNMI decline to pay.

A consequence of breaking the MOE agreement is that the federal government may withhold future grants to recover the $44 million SFSF money.

“That would put hundreds of Commonwealth government employees’ jobs on the line,” Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) earlier said.

Ada said the additional funding would be used to improve PSS’ infrastructure.

“I want schools to be e-book ready. The [BOE] wants to advance its technology, wants to have safe and [sturdy] schools, and infrastructures be environment-friendly,” said Ada.

“We want the students to be served a hot meal rather than a pre-packaged lunch; so [BOE] is moving in that direction,” she added.

Ada also mentioned that the additional funding would be used as possible financing for the recruitment and retention of highly qualified teachers.

Ada opts to stay positive on the matter. “It is not impossible. Everything is solvable and, if we work together, everything would be done,” she said. “I have four years to work on this. With my team, I believe we can do it.”

An estimated $9 million to $11 million is owed PSS under the MOE. Based on PSS’ books, the unremitted MOE for fiscal years 2010 and 2011 is over $7 million.

The CNMI government filed a waiver application with the U.S. Department of Education in 2012, seeking to change the MOE formula but the department has denied it.