Scholarship program gets $1 million

Legislators will boost funding for the government scholarship program by about $1 million to try to deal with anticipated deficit that threatens to cut substantial financial assistance to off-island students as well as those attending the Northern Marianas College.

Members of the House Ways and Means have decided to slash proposed appropriation for the purchase of new computer hardware to realign funds to the Scholarship’s Office, according to its chair Rep. Karl T. Reyes.

He said the committee has identified these money as possible source for much-needed funding for financial aid provided to local students, adding that at least a million dollars is expected to be generated from such move.

“A lot of members feel that instead of getting more computers now, why don’t we concentrate on putting those money into the scholarship’s program,” Reyes told in an interview.

While the panel hopes to increase the budget earmarked for educational assistance for FY 2000 from $2.3 million to over $4 million, it will have to cut appropriations from other sources aside from the acquisition of computer hardware.

“It’s not going to be enough but at least that will sustain some of the ongoing scholarship grants, especially students finishing their studies in the States, to make sure that they don’t drop out because of lack of funds,” said the chairman.

Finance officials earlier have warned several government scholars of smaller financial aid for schoolyear 1999-2000 as they project at least $1.2 million deficit in the funding in light of the continuous economic difficulties confronting the CNMI.

The shortfall stemmed largely from close to 50 percent reduction in the proposed appropriation for scholarship grants from $4 million in FY 1999 to $2.3 million by next year, which will be both shared by more than 1,000 students here and off-island.

To deal with the serious cash-flow problem, the Tenorio administration has overhauled the scholarship policy by capping the amount of grants extended to off-island students and eliminating the Educational Assistance Program extended to part-time students of NMC.

According to Reyes, the proposed increase in the budget for scholarships will also include EAP recipients of the local college as he noted that there are more students on island depending on this aid.

“If we were to address problems on the scholarship, we have to address needs of part-time students as well because these are students who try to make ends meet by going to work and going to school at the same time,” he said.