Guerrero said “bad mathematics will affect the education of the islands’ schoolchildren.”
The Legislature proposed a $36.4 million budget for PSS this fiscal year 2009, or $2 million less than what the governor originally proposed.
In a joint statement, Senate President Pete P. Reyes, R-Saipan, and Speaker Arnold I. Palacios, R-Saipan, said they also believe that education is really important but the CNMI simply does not have the resources to increase allocation for PSS.
“The bottom line is that the CNMI simply does not have the levels of revenues it did five years ago. There simply are not enough funds to satisfy all of the budget requests, but for those government entities which provide the basic services it is as close to what was requested as we could possibly manage,” they said.
“We are all supportive of a healthy teacher to student ratio and the preservation of PSS funding levels to the greatest extent practicable will serve to support this ongoing effort,” they added. “We have to make some tough decisions but we did it based on research, facts and the responses we received from letters of inquiry that were sent out to all general fund entities.”
PSS projects student enrollment this FY 2009 to reach 10,369 — down from 11,299 in FY 2007 as more families relocate to the U.S. mainland.
The Legislative leaders further said they look forward to working with PSS on the budget issue in 2010.
“We look forward to working on the FY 2010 budget and discussing the issues with representatives of the Public School System in advance of the Legislature presenting an appropriations bill to the governor,” they said.
