THE Board of Education wants to rehire the Public School System teachers who, for one reason or another, are now working for other employers, BOE Chairman Andrew Orsini told the House Committee on Education Friday.
Board of Education Chairman Andrew Orsini, center, speaks as Education Commissioner Alfred Ada, left, and BOE member Maisie Tenorio, listen during a meeting with the House Committee on Education in the House chamber on Friday.
Photo by Emmanuel T. Erediano
He said these teachers and other former PSS employees are locals who obtained their college degrees in the states and have come back to serve the local community.
He said the CNMI government should consider providing incentives to prevent “this kind of brain drain” in the school system.
“And if we don’t provide quality education to our students, then what will the Commonwealth be in the future?” he asked lawmakers.
“We do need local funds to try to bring those teachers back,” he added.
With the help of federal Education Stabilization Funds, PSS was able to restore its employees’ 80-hour work schedule.
But Orsini said although they can use a portion of federal funds for personnel cost, “we are trying to use federal monies given to us for specific programs. We cannot abuse those. We need local funds for our personnel because PSS needs some kind of stability to bring those teachers and other employees back,” he added.
For fiscal year 2021, the CNMI budget measure appropriated over $24 million for PSS. In FY 2019, PSS was originally allotted $42.8 million in local funds.
Aside from personnel cost, PSS uses local funds for its operations and utility costs.
The Department of Finance earlier said the transfer of local funds to PSS was based on what the government could collect in terms of revenue.
Like many countries and jurisdictions around the world, the Northern Marianas has been hit hard by the Covid-19 global pandemic, resulting in the worst economic downturn in CNMI history.
