GAO: CNMI subsidizing fewer alien students

The presence of nonresident students in several public schools in the Northern Marianas now has lesser impact to the CNMI government’s coffers due to the declining number of alien enrollees, including those from the Freely Associated States.

This was revealed by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of the United States Congress, in its most recent report on the local procedures relating to the flow of nonresidents into and out of the Northern Marianas.

Citing statistics from the Public School System, GAO noted a modest 2.5 percent drop in the number of enrollees among students borne to non-American parents, including those coming from the Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau.

The operational costs for providing educational services to alien students declined from about $8.3 million for the 1997-1998 school year to about $7.3 million for the SY 1998-1999 and then to about $60 million in the 1999-2000 school year, according to the GAO report.

In the School Year 1999-2000, alien students in PSS-administered institutions dropped to 1,028 from the previous period’s 1,230, which comprised 13.7 percent of total student population in public schools. Nonresident students now make up only 11.2 percent of the entire enrollees.

During the same period, population of U.S.-born students increased by 2.5 percent from the previous school year’s 7,742 to 8,115 this year.

Figures obtained from PSS noted that the number of FAS students who entered CNMI public schools dropped by an average of 12.6 percent, with the decline reported in all ethnic groups except for Marshallese and Yapese students.

There had been a 6.59 percent reduction in enrollees from Chuuk, totaling 336 in SY 2000 from the previous school year’s 349. CNMI public schools also witnessed a 21.09 percent reduction in the number of Palauan students from 441 to 348.

PSS is currently subsidizing 150 students from Pohnpei which is down by 23.86 percent from the previous school year’s 197, while Yapese enrollees remain at 58 students.
Only student population from Marshall Islands registered growth of 11.9 percent from 42 in SY 1999 to 47 this year.

In SY 1997, more than 1,000 students from the Compact countries were enrolled in CNMI public schools, outnumbering Carolinian students who total only 974 during the same period.

GAO said the alien student population in the PSS is not proportional to the overall alien population in the Northern Marianas. It added, however, that this may be because anyone born in the CNMI becomes a citizen.

GAO also noted that the enrollment of alien students in the CNMI public schools has decreased each year since the PSS started collecting data on the citizenship of the students in the 1997-1998 school year.

The dramatic decline in the number of FAS and nonresident students in PSS-run schools is expected to minimize the pressure on the Commonwealth’s budget deficit problems.
Despite the increase in overall student enrollment, the Commonwealth’s austerity program has reduced annual allocation to government programs including education, resulting to a significant drop in the per student operating cost since the 1997-1998 school year.

In SY 1997-1998, per student operating cost was $6,539. The figure dropped to $5,917 the following school year and down again to $5,779 in the last school year, according to the GAO report which quoted statistics from the PSS.