Acting Gov. Eloy S. Inos and Sablan said they are now working together to ease the impact of losing a significant amount of federal funding for public education.
Inos said education is the administration’s top priority but it “will get hit the hardest because of the significant amount of funding that will be lost.”
According to Tim Thornburgh, PSS federal program officer and acting assistant commissioner for administration services, the $8 million that helped many CNMI teachers keep their jobs in 2010 and 2011 had been spent as of Sept. 30.
Sablan said he and the rest of the members of the U.S. Congress “do understand it is going to be what we call a funding cliff where federal funding like the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund and other American Reinvestment and Recovery Act monies are going to stop.”
Public school officials, he said, are aware of that.
Inos said there should be a lot of discussions and collaboration between the administration and PSS.
“We, the administration, are looking forward to engage in this issue because it is not going to be an easy one,” he said.
He noted that PSS is certainly doing its best in trying to live within its means.
Inos would also like the Legislature to work together with the Board of Education to make sure “we deliver the maximum support possible to the education of our children.”
Thornburgh said PSS is still expecting to get $29 million in various federal grants.
For his part, Sablan said he and PSS officials have been looking at other options.
“Considering the serious financial budget situation in the U.S. Congress right now it is very tough and we are looking at ways to help where we can so that PSS can have resources it needs,” he added.
Asked if there would be more federal assistance soon, Sablan said, “We don’t know but we are hoping that President Obama’s American Job Act has something there for teachers as well.”
The White House-sponsored measure is facing hurdles in the Republican-dominated U.S. House of Representatives but Sablan said “there are other options and the president continues to look at those.”
Sablan said he had a meeting with Education Secretary Arne Duncan just last week and he brought up some of the funding concerns of PSS.
Education Commissioner Rita A. Sablan said PSS is very careful with its spending.
“We have looked at our financial management plan for the next five years. We have forecast what would be the spending plan, what would the revenue be for PSS. So we have been very careful all the way,” she said.
Now that some federal funding is ending, “we have to be very frugal and very tight and make sure teachers are hired.”
One of the expenses PSS is now cutting is the utility cost, she added.
“There are many different ways we can cut costs. We have moved out of the Retirement Fund building. That way, PSS saved over quarter of a million dollars in lease payments. That money now is in the schools, for the teachers. We’re trying to protect jobs,” she said.
