This is how the Public School System will use the $8.3 million that the CNMI is expected to get from the Education Jobs Fund measure that President Obama signed into law last week to avoid teacher layoffs in the nation.
PSS federal program officer Tim Thornburgh, in an interview, said the local system is among the local school districts that will get a portion of the $10 billion in federal monies that PSS, through Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, had been monitoring over the past nine months.
This, he said, is among the pieces of federal legislation that Sablan has been working on since last year, knowing itwill benefit the people of the CNMI.
PSS, which has 20 schools, will get $30 million only from the local budget for fiscal year 2011.
In previous years, PSS used to receive $37 million from the CNMI government.
Thornburgh said the $30 million local appropriation is just enough for 16 schools.
Without federal assistance, PSS would have faced a $7 million shortfall that would leave four schools with no budget.
Education Commissioner Rita Sablan, in a separate interview, said the timing of the federal Education Jobs Fund was “perfect.”
“We have been fully blessed,” she said. “Without federal help our schools would have to struggle in the new school year.”
Thornburgh said Garapan Elementary School and William S. Reyes Elementary School will be among the four schools that will be completely federally funded.
He said they are still determining the two other schools that should get federal assistance.
According to Thornburgh, the Education Jobs Fund that will be provided to PSS should be enough to fund four schools for two school years.
The CNMI will get the funding hopefully by November, he said, as the U.S. Education Department has 30 days to complete the regulations in implementing the new law.
