REPRESENTATIVE Stanley T. Torres is questioning the statement issued by Education Commissioner Rita H. Inos on the need to make all students read by 3rd grade.
Torres said Inos’s move is “a little bit too late” as she could have done it when she began her term as commissioner.
“Dr. Inos should have implemented this program three years ago when she became education commissioner. Why only now at the eve of her contract expiration? The way it sounds to me, Dr. Inos has just started the project. And that’s another one of her failures in administering the program,” said Torres, R-Saipan.
Torres also doubted Inos’s capability to handle administrative matters since “I think her doctorate degree is in counseling and not in administration.”
Inos said the Public School System intends to implement a national program, Reading First, embodied in the recently signed federal law—the No Child Left Behind Act.
She said PSS’s participation will strengthen programs provided to students.
But Robert H. Myers, PSS and Board of Education spokesman, said the lawmaker’s claim “is totally wrong.”
He said Inos had already implemented a program similar to the U.S. Reading First when she became commissioner.
“Even before the Reading First program, Dr. Inos started a similar program called the Reading Initiative program. She did it in 1998. It has improved the students’ reading capability. Unfortunately, PSS has limited budget and the number of additional elementary students should also be taken into consideration. So to get additional money to continue the program, PSS has to tap funding from the Reading First program of the federal government,” Myers said.
