Education governor? Not!

Think, as Juan Nekai Babauta likes to call himself, that we have an “education governor?” Think again. Juan Nekai Babauta is anything BUT an “education governor.” While he has been off island (again!), this time to put in a pointless, gratuitous and self-indulgent appearance at the Republican Nation Convention in New York, the governor has left the education system and other instruments of government to flounder. Someone must ask publicly, where have Juan Babauta, his trusty assistants and his authority structure been during the recent typhoon crisis? Why has there been no political will to manage this situation responsibly? Why has this administration, in direct violation of existing CNMI law, permitted several hundred people to remain long after the “all clear” (the severe typhoon warning conditions 1 and 2 have long since been suspended) as virtual squatters at Marianas High School? The “storm refugees”’ continuing extended and unwarranted presence in the classrooms of MHS has so unnecessarily disrupted education that the school year and the academic progress of our students has been materially skewed. Schools are not casual institutions. They run on close schedules in order to accomplish complex goals for the students. If it is deemed necessary later to “make up” the full two weeks that have been lost to MHS due to this governor’s inaction, dereliction and incompetence, everyone involved will have been, at the least, mightily inconvenienced. One thing is certain, the flow of the school year has been irreparably altered. Preexisting academic and social agendas have been dashed. Holiday travel obligations will have been disrupted at unconscionable financial cost to those who have standing plans to travel off island. It should be stated clearly and unequivocally what everyone already senses about Juan Babauta’s absenteeism. This governor is a lame excuse for a chief executive and is little more than a showpiece politician who panders to his relatives and cronies at the expense of the well-being of the youth (and others) of the CNMI. So, is he the “education governor?” Clearly, the answer is, “No!” This is no governor at all, education or otherwise.

A concerned and disturbed citizen

Editor’s Note: The letter writer requested anonymity, saying “reprisal is sure when one offends the honorable (and pusillanimous) Gov. Juan N. Babauta.”