Ambrose M. Bennett
THE Truth is it seems our Delegate is really asking the Feds to solve our problem AGAIN when I’ve been offering a PROVEN Workforce Transition Plan for years. The U.S. Dept. of Education sent me to Mexico to do a “Comparison Study of Mexico & the CNMI” where I learned about Mexico’s AWSOME Public Service Program (PSP). Mexico implemented their PSP due to the challenge of a poverty riddled society’s inability to “educate & train skilled and professional employees needed” and it has proven to be successful for decades. I commend the Delegate for her noble effort to address the workforce transition mandate. However, it’s really Arnold’s job and Ambrose did “reach-out to her but she did NOT return my call,” thus you are reading this, which also confirms what I’ve been telling readers about how OUR leaders just turn a deaf ear to me & others regardless of the merits. She claimed to WANT input, but she avoids the person who might have the BEST solution.
I don’t take any pleasure in this as I was actually “rooting for her success FOR the sake of ALL of us in the CNMI.” However, as readers can see I’m right back to yelling at another leader who just refused to even listen and now must Listen & LEARN with the rest of the entire CNMI – didn’t have to be this way, if she acted more professional. Maybe one day they (leaders) will learn to be respectful when one of their Bosses calls or offers a solution. Please RETURN your call(s), as Ambrose is not going to beg nor sit-still for being Disrespected & GHOSTED by a person who is supposed to be working for ME! I KNOW I’m one of their Bosses, as asking for our vote is asking to be hired. I just take my citizenry SERIOUSLY, but some can’t take the heat of accountability and others just don’t like being checked and need to grow up and be a real professional!
Furthermore, the Delegate’s Stabilization Plan depends on entirely too much Federal Legislation & Federal approvals that WE can’t control. It might even be impossible to get “the U.S. Congress to repeal & change laws just for the CNMI and the need for U.S. Secretaries approval, getting the CNMI’s Covenant changed with additional Policies changes by the Legislature, and more importantly her plan, does NOT address the transition of our youth & adults into the workforce in every CW position” as the mandate is “Transition,” not extension — duh! Our transition was dumped on PSS, NMC, and NMTI with no full Legislative support. I’m not against CWs as the CNMI needs all of them and more with growth. But “Self-preservation is the FIRST Law of Nature” and I’m sure CWs can understand WE must look out for OUR Youth & Adults FIRST & FOREMOST or WE would not be good stewards of the CNMI – for TRUE! Failing to “proficiently transition our adults & youth into the workforce is a deadly FLAW,” as our youth & adults should be the MAJOR priority to increase the Local workforce and to curve the never-ending migration. Her plan is a “Fancy Legal EXTENSION” that lacks the specificity needed to address ALL the variables with fixed backup numbers for growth that appears to be guess-work & shortsighted if more are needed.
FYI readers & Delegate, I’m proposing Mexico’s Public Service Program, not Ambrose’s, that is TRIED & PROVEN which is why I’ve been promoting the program EVERSINCE 2008. I offered the PSP for PSS to undertake the lead in my interview to be the Commissioner, as the PSP would allow PSS to expand services while decreasing the teacher workforce. And yes, Ambrose was 17 yrs. ahead of the issue AGAIN! Mexico’s PSP requires employers & students to participate for “all skilled jobs in high school for 3 to 6 hundred hours and 1,200 hours in college. Students will select their career preference(s) and work part-time on-sight as a trainee in the 10th, 11th, & 12th grade to accumulate the required training hours for a major or minor and adults will go through NMTI. ALL employers are required by Law to accept trainees for CW positions who will really be FREE Labor in exchange for on-the-job training in their field of choice and even a job upon graduation. Just think, students & adults can have a “Health Care career, Engineering or any Skilled job” for no additional costs and even a cost savings for PSS & NMC. But who listens to the recognized scholar by the U.S. Congress & Department of Education who sent me to Mexico as Arnold asked for ideas too, which is WHY prosperity is so elusive when leaders claimed to want ideas but in reality, they’re just gaslighting & pretending. However, my students know, Mr. B Don’t Take No Stuff — for TRUE!
But employers will be glad to get FREE worker(s) increasing productivity and I’m sure students will be enthusiastic (with parents’ permission) to start their careers in high school (healthcare, engineers (electrical & others), construction, computers & technology jobs and the list goes on). The PSP promotes citizenry through volunteer work while stabilizing & growing the Local Workforce and will reveal the “factual justification” that Locals do NOT want certain jobs that only CWs take and justify all CWs needed by 2029 or Feds takeover AGAIN! The CNMI’s only needs to create Law to “require businesses to comply and to allow for youth & adult volunteers to work in exchange for education & on-the-job training” controlled & tracked by Dept. of Labor – a simple & proven solution to our complex challenge of transitioning the workforce. For me, the Feds didn’t ask for an “Extension Plan” and her plan is only about CWs, it’s not perpetual & its extra-externally dependent upon U.S. Cabinet Members & U.S. Congress. The PSP is full inclusion, perpetual & interdependent upon our Laws for a Systemic Transitional Public Service Program – it’s that simple!
One People, One Direction.
Ambrose M. Bennett is an Economist who minored in Sociology, a Political Scientist, a retired teacher & former CNMI Board of Education Member, a James Madison Fellow (U.S. Constitutional Scholar), a Fulbright-Hays-Lifetime Humanities & Religious Scholar who resides in Kagman III in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
