Education Commissioner Rita A. Sablan, BOE Chairwoman Lucy Blanco Maratita, BOE member, Herman Guerrero and other education officials attended the House session yesterday to lobby against the budget cut.
Sablan told the lawmakers that if they pass the budget as drafted “you will basically fire me.”
She reminded the lawmakers that of the 500 graduates of public schools, 368 have indicated willingness to pursue college education.
Sablan told lawmakers that cutting the education budget affects students.
“Please make sure that our children can continue coming to school,” she said.
Maratita, a lawyer, noted that the budget bill provides no funding for BOE but included a language on expenditure authority which she described as “adding insult to injury.”
Reminding lawmakers that the CNMI Constitution created BOE, Maratita said the board has been performing work without out any compensation except those for its three full-time employees.
She said by not providing funding to BOE is a clear message that lawmakers “don’t see the importance of its functions.”
Guerrero, a former House member, said the budget proposal is “basically shutting down PSS.”
He urged the House members to “show respect to the CNMI’s young generation,” and to remember that lawmakers are accountable to the people who voted for them.
Tim Thornburgh, PSS federal program officer, told the lawmakers that the school system does not need to have Austerity Fridays or unpaid holidays because it will have enough federal monies to cover the shortfall in local funding.
PSS finance officer Richard Waldo told lawmakers that “the more you cut the budget, the more the CNMI economy would go down.”
Representatives from the judiciary also attended the session to express concern about the proposed budget.
Sonia Camacho, the special assistant to the presiding judge, said the $2.9 million proposed for the judiciary is not enough and will severely limit the people’s access to the local courts.
The math done in the budget proposal needs to be revisited, she added.
Heather Kennedy, the executive director for the Law Revision Commission, said the reduced budget will give them a hard time in reviewing “the laws the you pass.”
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Ramon S. Basa, Covennat-Saipan, said he was happy that after “a long journey,” his committee finally came up with a draft budget bill.
However, he added, the concerns being raised against it sadden him.
Noting that the government’s financial resources are “record-low,” the proposed budget is dictated by “circumstances.”
He then moved for the passage of the bill, H.B. 17-96, which Vice Speaker Felicidad T. Ogumoro, Covenant-Saipan, seconded.
But House Minority Leader Diego T. Benavente, R-Saipan, said he and other members of the minority bloc should be allowed to submit amendments and address all the concerns raise against the bill.
He believes there is still a way to resolve the matter, and that is “by not giving ourselves an increase.”
He urged the House leadership to abandon the plan to increase their individual discretionary funds so they can cover the shortfall of BOE/PSS and the judiciary.
