“We ask our students to get degrees and contribute to the CNMI, but the challenge is turning out to be a double-edged sword. We have a scholarship program that is facing very difficult times in funding the scholarships, which is now causing students to drop out of college and defeating the purpose of the scholarship programs,” Bennett told Variety on Capital Hill.
He was referring to the CNMI scholarship program and the Saipan Higher Education Financial Assistance, better known as SHEFA.
When asked why he’s staging a protest, Bennett talked about his job as a parent sending his daughters to college on worthwhile scholarships, adding that he had to take a loan to defray the costs of their education because of delays in the issuance of scholarship checks.
“A cut in education is a cut in our future,” he said.
Scholarship checks were released last Friday, but the programs are struggling due to the government’s cash-flow problem.
“The CNMI government must find a way to maintain the funding for our children if there is to be any hope of preserving the integrity of the local workforce in all the professional fields,” Bennett said.
He added that there is also no “repatriation program” in place to monitor scholarship recipients so they can come back to the commonwealth and contribute to the workforce or pay back the CNMI government.
Bennett said many students who receive scholarships are not returning mainly because of the “lack of jobs available for them and the low-paying salaries in the CNMI.”
Exercise in futility
Press Secretary Angel Demapan described Bennett’s protest action as an “exercise in futility,” adding that the “scholarship checks were paid out already.”
He said Department of Finance paid out a majority of the SHEFA checks last Friday.
SHEFA should have picked up the checks on Monday, he added.
“I understand that [Bennett] is protesting SHEFA in particular. Now, we always have to remember is that the SHEFA scholarship is dependent on the collection of poker license fees, so what we have done…is we have paid out the maximum of poker license fees that have been collected,” Demapan said.
There are poker machines that are not up for renewal, he added.
There are also a lot of misconceptions within the community that SHEFA is an “automatic appropriation,” he said.
“It’s not. It’s largely dependent from a funding source, and that funding source is the collection of poker license fees,” he clarifies.
But Demapan said the administration understands Bennett’s concerns.
“We understand where he’s coming from as a parent of college students, but, as you know, the government also is dealing with extreme financial struggles, and the biggest issue with SHEFA is it’s not a budget appropriation from the general fund.”
Demapan also noted that the administration offered a safeguard in a recent local bill for SHEFA funds, saying it’s in line with the governor’s priority which, he added, is education.
Bennett believes that the delay in the release of scholarship checks has something to do with the Saipan casino proposal.
“It’s time to stop the ‘stalling game’ to force us to accept casinos and to commit instead to one of the many alternatives to revitalize our economy so wages can increase. Otherwise, the CNMI may be doomed to be run by a non-local workforce in all the professional fields, he added.
“The government is a parent to all of us. It’s supposed to work for us.”
