It required the CNMI government to maintain 22.73 percent funding level of PSS or $34.459 million of the overall government appropriation.
PSS said this was confirmed by the U.S. Department of Education’s program manager for SFSF, Lauren Scott.
PSS said its budget is now down to $31.4 million.
Climate of fear
“Let us not create a climate of fear here,” Press Secretary Angel Demapan said in an interview yesterday.
No federal monies will be lost, he assured, as long as the local funding complies with the percentage requirement.
“Everybody’s commitment is to ensure quality education but the government also has to pursue quality of life for everyone,” he added.
He said it is the government’s constitutional responsibility to operate within available resources.
The administration, he added, has applied for a waiver that allows the CNMI government to maintain the 22.73 percent requirement in lieu of the dollar figure in the MOE.
The PSS budget reduced by $1 million still meets the 22.73 percent requirement, he added.
“Who will believe PSS is in danger of losing funds if it can pay the Variety for a colored centerfold advertisement plus separate print outs on glossy paper?” he asked.
Exemption
PSS, along with Northern Marianas College, is seeking exemption from the government-wide austerity measure, or House Bill 17-45.
NMC’s level of funding must be maintained at 3.94 percent of the total government appropriation or at $5.987 million. NMC was awarded $4 million under the SFSF grant.
“In order to qualify for an MOE waiver, the total education spending including (NMC) and (PSS) must be the same or greater percentage than the previous year,” Scott confirmed to PSS in an e-mail.
“Please note that these percentage are based on the number provided (by the CNMI government): $151.584 million total allocations for the CNMI for FY 2009 (of which) $34.459 million is for PSS,” Scott pointed out. “If these numbers change and the percentages change then this will affect the MOE level that the CNMI has to meet.”
Separately, during a teleconference with local senators and the PSS leadership, the legal counsel for the USDOE, Christine Rose, reminded the CNMI government’s obligation to meet the federal MOE so PSS can continue receiving the current level of federal grants as well as the balance which amounts to about $16 million.
“The MOE must be followed otherwise the CNMI PSS will reimburse the USDOE of the money that was initially awarded,” PSS quoted the lawyer as saying.
Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan confirmed the USDOE’s statements. “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act State Fiscal Stabilization Funds are subject to the MOE agreement. The governor certified that the CNMI would maintain education funding as a condition of receiving the ARRA/SFSF money.”
PSS local funding has been decreasing over the years and its current level of $31.4 million is the lowest in nearly two decades.
For the last 12 years, the local funding level for PSS was reduced from $43 million in FY 1997 to $31.4 million in the current fiscal year.
Even before the introduction of the austerity bill, PSS said it has implemented its own cost-cutting measures.
Education Commissioner Rita A. Sablan said these include a hiring freeze, the reduction of non-personnel items by $500,000, the reduction of utility expenses and transfer of utility expenses from local to federal funds, a partial reimbursement from the JROTC program amounting to $400,000, and the transfer of personnel cost from local to federal funds, amounting to $780,000.
“We do not need austerity because we have done it already,” Sablan said. “We have already identified solutions that would exempt PSS from H.B. 17-45.”
She said the solutions they have identified will ease PSS funding shortage in the next two fiscal years.
“We are unique in a sense because we have federal grants that are more than our local budget and this enables us to operate and sustain our education programs, and we are not only talking about Saipan, but it includes Tinian and Rota,” she said
She added, “This is why local funding for PSS should not be reduced so we can continue to receive federal funds and provide free, compulsory and quality education to students 6 to 16 years old.”
