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NMI education spending lowerthan US level
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Posted on Oct 19 2006
The Commonwealth spends nearly 40 percent less on the education of local students than the federal government does for children in the United States, according to the CNMI Public School System.
A PSS financial analysis showed that PSS spent $5,635 to educate each CNMI student in fiscal year 2005. This is $3,597 or 39 percent lower than the $9,232 cost per child in the states.
Federal grants accounted for $2,425, or over 40 percent, of the $5,635 spent on the instruction of each CNMI student. Local funding comprised the remaining $3,210.
Furthermore, the PSS report indicated that the CNMI’s education spending had remained at almost the same level since 1998, while U.S. spending on education had been consistently on the rise.
The cost per child in the states started off at $6,474 in FY1998 and kept climbing to $9,232 in FY2005. Meanwhile, the cost per child in the CNMI was at an all-time-high $5,959 in FY1998 and then dropped to a record-low $4,909 in FY2002. The cost increased to $5,756 in FY2004, but dipped again in FY2005.
The CNMI’s spending level remained somewhat constant despite the steady increase in PSS enrollment.
With only 9,246 students in 1998, PSS had a population of 11,599 students by 2005. Enrollment is expected to hit 15,000 in 2010.
In 1998, PSS operated 16 schools with a total budget of $37 million. Since then, PSS has added six schools: Dandan Elementary, Kagman Elementary and High Schools, Sinapalo Elementary, Cha Cha Junior High, and Saipan Southern High School.
In FY2005, PSS had 22 schools with the same $37 million budget.
According to PSS, the new schools received their budgets from existing schools. The cost for the new schools in FY2005 was $8 million. Approximately $2 million was cut from the total budget due to transferring teachers from the old schools to the new schools. But all the general and administration costs of these schools were financed by reducing central office and existing schools’ budgets. Federal funds also helped finance some of the teacher costs.
PSS is the largest employer in the CNMI government, with over 1,150 workers.
