‘IT does not protect education’

Hofschneider-Yumul campaign spokesman John P. Del Rosario says the Inos-Torres camp’s claim of “protecting” education is false.

“If you really look at the course this current administration has taken with regard to funding the Northern Marianas College and the Public School System,” Del Rosario said, “their record is abysmal and  IT’s ‘IT Protects Education’ road signs should read ‘IT Drains Education.’”

“Look at the budget for fiscal year 2007,” Del Rosario said. “The budget, signed into law by Inos’ predecessor, Gov. Fitial, approved over $38 million for PSS. If ‘protection’ was their intention, then why was there a 16-percent decrease in that funding in the budget for the current fiscal year? Each year, subsequent to 2007, public school officials were in the news, the Legislature, making hay over the governor’s withholding of millions of dollars.”

“Even Education Commissioner Dr. Rita Sablan has expressed frustration over inadequate funding this year,” Del Rosario said, “saying that the current budget is not enough to ease the pain of large class sizes due to the inability to hire more teachers. She has even hinted at a possible ‘state of emergency’ that CNMI PSS may have to declare.”

“This doesn’t sound leadership ‘protecting’ education to me,” Del Rosario said.  “And not funding the public school utility payments is irresponsible as well but I guess they figure if the central government doesn’t pay its power bills, the school system should be lumped into the mix as well, leaving schools to negotiate with the CUC over and over and over and that’s a waste of energy and valuable resources.”

“Furthermore, look at NMC,” Del Rosario continued. “From FY 2007, the over $5 million that was budgeted for the college has taken a comparable hit. In the current fiscal year, there has been a nearly 18-percent decrease in funding from seven years ago.”

“For college students here at NMC and abroad, the threat of losing scholarships should be a major concern,” Del Rosario said. “And the current administration, through the casino law, has effectively ended the Saipan Higher Education Financial Assistance without a known plan to replenish it.”

“Since SHEFA is funded by poker license revenue and the casino law states that no new licenses will be honored in light of the Best Sunshine casino, that leaves SHEFA’s future in limbo with no known plans by this administration to save it,” Del Rosario said. “That sounds like IT protecting their business interests, not protecting education.”

“When our students needed ‘protection,’ the administration chose to approve budgets and laws that continually drained education resources” Del Rosario said. “You don’t ‘protect’ education by underfunding it.” (PR)