Kilili wants PSS, US lawmakers to discuss education challenges

CNMI Rep. Gregorio “Kilili” Sablan wants lawmakers in Washington D.C. to get a better understanding of the challenges facing the Public School System in the CNMI.

Sablan, who was recently named to the House Education Committee, said he is arranging meetings between the members of the committee and PSS officials.

“I think that PSS know best how we can all work together to improve the education of our children so I am making arrangements for these meetings here in Washington,” he said in an e-mail.

Sablan has been selected to take part in the Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education Subcommittee, where he will focus on reworking the No Child Left Behind Act this year.

The law requires all states and territories to develop assessments in basic skills of all students in certain grades, if those areas are to achieve federal funding.

Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the Education Committee, has said that the Act needs significant improvements and, Sablan said, he looks forward to working with Miller, the committee and the Obama administration to make the law fairer and more flexible for the CNMI. He added that he also wants the Northern Marianas to be better funded under the NCLB.

Under the Act, all teachers must be designated as highly qualified by 2010. Besides holding a bachelor’s degree and meeting state certification requirements, teachers must pass a state-approved teacher test. The PSS Board of Education adopted the PRAXIS I and II tests. The board also decided that teachers who do not pass the PRAXIS exams will get a reduction in pay to a first year teacher’s salary, regardless of the years they have worked within the school system—a move that has upset many teachers in the system. One of the arguments among the Association of Commonwealth Teachers is that test scores set by the BOE were in comparison to U.S. states, while many of the teachers within the school system speak English as a second language and did not attend U.S.-based education institutions. Some of the information on the tests are based on information that is learned in elementary or high school, the group said.

Such issues related to the Act need to be discussed in person, Sablan said.

“I think it would be very important at this time for a PSS official to come to Washington for face-to-face meetings with committee staff so that there is a clear understanding of specific issues facing educators in the Northern Mariana Islands,” he said.

In January, Education Commissioner Rita A. Sablan, BOE chair Lucy Blanco-Maratita, BOE member Marylou Ada and PSS federal programs officer Tim Thornburgh traveled to D.C. to meet with U.S. Department of Education officials to discuss federal funding for the CNMI and other insular areas.