‘Alien students slip through immigration loopholes’

Many foreign students who were allowed to enroll in private schools on island are taking advantage of “loopholes” in the existing immigration system and are ending up as public school students, availing of free education from the government, according to the representative of private schools in the Board of Education, Scott Norman.

During a regular meeting yesterday, Norman said private schools are losing foreign students due to “transfers,” majority of whom go to public schools.

Based on regulations promulgated three years ago by the Attorney General’s Office, foreign students are permitted to study and enroll in private schools in the CNMI provided they comply with the standards and requirements set by the local immigration system. The rules were adopted without any legislative approval.

Although the promulgated rules were intended to promote the islands as an edu-tourism center, Norman said this is not what is really happening at present.

Under immigration rules, these foreign students could enroll at private schools but are not allowed to “re-enroll,” “transfer,” or “move” to other institutions, especially to the island’s public schools.

However, Norman said, a significant number of former private school enrollees are now at PSS through their sponsors and guardians.

He said private schools have been suffering a decline in enrollment since last school year, with many parents opting to move their kids to public schools due to the bad economy and to avail of the free education.

“Edu-tourism is a good concept…but it’s not happening as what we wanted it to be because we have concerns on the implementation of the promulgated rules,” he said.

Norman cited an instance where one of his foreign students failed to re-enroll at the Calvary Christian School, only to find out later that the student had transferred to Marianas High School.

MHS principal Karen Borja was present in yesterday’s meeting.

Norman emphasized that “documentations or records” pertaining to his former student cannot be provided to PSS schools; only the Immigration Division could ask for them.

Edu-tourism, he said, will not be successful without the “parental supervision or involvement” of the students’ foreign parents.

He noted that many foreign students are being accepted at PSS, mostly through sponsorships and guardians.

Norman believes that the existing immigration rules governing foreign students are in conflict with the current statute. Since the rules were implemented, there have been “no supervision” of the rules, he said.

“It was never supervised, we’ve never been visited or inspected onsite if we do match up on our application,” Norman told the board, asking the body to look at his concerns.