By Gerardo R. Partido
Variety News Staff

DEMOCRATIC senators are urging the education board to preserve the budget of the Guam Public School System, saying that budgetary cuts may affect the quality of education on island.
Sens. Judith P. Guthertz, D-Mangilao, and Rory J. Respicio, D-Agana Heights, wrote Guam Education Policy Board chairman Peter Alecxis Ada to express their concern over plans to change the GPSS budget because of the government’s poor financial condition.
GPSS has said that it needs $290 million for its fiscal year 2008 budget in order to fully implement Public Law 28-5 or the “Every Child is Entitled to an Adequate Public Education Act.”
Because of GovGuam’s dire financial situation, however, the school board has been holding emergency meetings to try to trim the budget so as not to overburden the general fund.
“We do not believe that this is the position you should be taking as chairman of the GEPB. We recognize our government’s fiscal problem, including the overall deficit and debt now pegged at more than $1 billion. However, the role of the board is to implement the law, not to select which laws to follow and which laws to ignore,” the senators wrote in their letter to Ada.
Moreover, Guthertz and Respicio are urging the GEPB members to submit their education budget request to Vice Speaker Eddie Calvo’s legislative committee on finance.
“Whenever GEPB adopts a GPSS budget request, it should always reflect an attempt to fully comply with the law. It is the purview of Vice Speaker Calvo, his committee, and the other members of the 29th Guam Legislature to make the tough budgetary decisions that will be necessary to craft the overall fiscal year 2008 budget,” the senators said.
Respicio, in a separate letter to Speaker Mark Forbes, R-Sinajana, also expressed his concern over the state of the government’s finances, the seeming lack of action on the part of the Legislature to address GovGuam’s tremendous debt, and the deleterious effects that the deficit has had on education.
“In the past, I distinctly recall you saying that it wasn’t right for the administration to release allotments consisting only of net payroll, but that’s exactly what has happened with the last two allotments released to the Guam Public School System,” Respicio said.
He said that both the University of Guam and Guam Community College have also been shortchanged on their allotments. UOG is currently operating at only 80 percent of its budget due to GovGuam’s failure to remit its allotments.
“By the administration’s own admissions, some allotments withheld from other agencies are considered to be ‘savings’, indicating the administration’s recommended appropriations for those agencies were too high in their budget submittal,” Respicio pointed out.