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Ogumoro bill wants public schools to prepare FY budgets
Rep. Felicidad T. Ogumoro (R-Saipan) has offered a bill requiring public schools, including elementary and secondary schools in the CNMI, to prepare their respective fiscal year budgets.
House Bill 19-17, or the “Public Schools Budget Authority Act” also requires these budgets to be incorporated in the budget of the Public School System commissioner and the State Board of Education on an annual basis for submission to the Legislature for appropriation.
Ogumoro, in the recent budget hearings for several departments including PSS, emphasized that this information will help the Legislature when it comes to determining the budget requests of the each department.
In her bill, Ogumoro said student learning will improve by having each public school prepare a fiscal year budget, and “upon is approval and appropriation by the Legislature, such funds are used pursuant to the approved budget.”
The fiscal year budget for the public schools also includes all sources of funds and expenditure.
The expenditure authority of the funds will be the school principal of the public school, the bill noted.
Another key element of the bill is that a public school’s budget will be separate and apart from that of the PSS commissioner and the State Board of Education. “Therefore, funds approved and appropriated by the Legislature pursuant to the school’s budget submission shall be disbursed only upon the request of the school principals.”
Ogumoro’s bill is set to be introduced at a House session on Tinian this Thursday.
