PSS: Offer loan program instead of upfront scholarship

The Board of Education and the Public School System believe it to be more viable for the government to offer a loan program instead of upfront scholarships to college students as what is being proposed in a pending legislation at the House of Representatives.
In a joint letter to the House Committee on Education, BOE chair Herman T. Guerrero and acting education commissioner Glenn Muna said they like the goal of House Bill 18-178, which proposes to establish a related service providers scholarship. However, the bill must consider not only the needs of the public sector but private companies as well, they said.

They pointed out that HB 18-178 takes into account only the needs of PSS.

“There are many essential positions that are not being filled in the private sector because our children do not have an incentive to return to the CNMI. This should be remedied. By making the scholarship contingent on employment with PSS, the bill simultaneously limits the earning capacity of a qualified individual and forces PSS to fill a job that it may or may not need in the future,” according to the two officials.

For Guerrero and Muña, it might be helpful to allow graduates to provide “essential services” to the government or people of the CNMI in any capacity, as opposed to limiting it to a public sector job. The bill, they said, should include also some of the in-demand jobs that the Saipan Higher Education Financial Assistance has listed as well.

The bill, they said, only targets those students who have not yet begun their advanced degrees.

“This means that the first time we might see any of these students return to the CNMI is in three years’ time. In order to remedy that, we suggest that you look at the option of a loan repayment program instead of an upfront scholarship program,” according to Guerrero and Muña.

They explained that instead of awarding students scholarships, they can be offered $10,000 a year after they return to the CNMI and provide an essential service to pay off their loan.

By doing this, two goals will be accomplished, they said.

First, this will allow students who are currently getting an advanced degree in the United States to benefit from returning to the CNMI now. This means that PSS will not have to wait for another three years to reap the benefits of the bill and that these services will become immediately available.

Secondly, this will do away with the problem of collection and accounting for those students who return and do not fulfill the full three years, or do not return at all after receiving a scholarship.

“We can only imagine that it is a delicate and unfortunate process to try to collect money from a young professional who for whatever reason has decided not to return to the CNMI. By offering a loan repayment, however, that students will view returning to the CNMI as an opportunity to shrink their debt as opposed to an obligation that they signed up for early on, maybe when their circumstances were different,” added the two officials.