Legislature funds governor’s education initiative for 2005

The Legislature has agreed to continue the Governor’s Education Initiative, allotting $600,000 for it under the 2005 budget bill.

Legislative conference committee co-chair Sen. Joseph Mendiola said both chambers supported funding the initiative because it is “an effective program.”

“[The] education initiative is being implemented in other states. It’s proven to be an effective type of motivation for both teachers and students,” said Mendiola.

The Babauta administration began to implement the initiative last year, identifying some $840,000 in grants that teachers, principals, and students can compete for.

The initiative consists of seven different grants, mainly addressing the chronic lack of supplies in public schools.

One grant, the Computers in Classrooms pilot program, seeks to equip at least an entire class in one public middle or high school with laptop computers. Last year, the grant was awarded to Saipan Southern High School.

Other grants include the Teacher Resource and Respect Grant, the Performance Improvement Grants for teachers, Teacher of the Year Award; Development Director pilot program, Healthy Students pilot program; and the Performance Improvement Grants for students.

The Teacher Resource and Respect Grant aims to reimburse teachers as much as $250 per year for school supplies bought using their own money.

The Performance Improvement Grants for teachers makes available at least 50 grants worth a maximum of $2,500 for each teacher to provide materials and equipment, student learning experiences, or opportunities for professional development.

The Teacher of the Year Award gives $5,000 to the educator selected as teacher of the year, and also provide $2,000 and $1,000 for the second and third teacher of the year runners up, respectively.

The Development Director Pilot Program allows a school to hire a development director tasked to encourage donations under the Education Tax Credit, applying for grant funds from public and private sources, among others. Up to $62,000 was available under this grant.

The Healthy Students pilot program would grant one school up to $125,000 to test the impact of providing a school-based approach to students’ physical and psychological health needs, such as suicide, depression, sexuality, substance abuse, diabetes and obesity. This pilot program was awarded to Marianas High School, which now maintains a school-based clinic to attend to students.

The Performance Improvement Grants for students seeks to award a maximum $1,000 to individual students to support special projects.

The administration has created committees to set the guidelines in the choice of the performance and improvement grants for teachers and students.

The administration said that it proposed these programs for funding in the FY 2003 and FY 2004 budgets but both were not accepted by the Legislature.