Kilili: $27.9M for Marianas Schools
Statement
Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan said the Marianas is receiving $27,940,945 for schools from the CARES Act Education Stabilization Fund. The U.S. Department of Education sent the funding allocation for the Marianas and other insular areas today to Sablan, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education. The Department set aside 20 percent of the Marianas money, $5.6 million, in a Governor's Emergency Education Relief Fund. The remaining 80 percent, $22.4 million, is available directly to the Public School System.
In a letter to Governor Ralph Torres today, Congressman Sablan urged the Governor use his special set-aside, too, for the Public School System, "so all furloughed PSS teachers and staff can be paid in full what they are owed for this school year and so the 10,000 students of PSS have the greatest possible opportunity to continue learning during the coronavirus crisis."
Sablan has been pressing the Department of Education and the White House to make the CARES Act money available to Marianas schools quickly. He delayed leaving Washington until today, when he was certain the Department was releasing the money needed to pay furloughed PSS teachers.
Now, Congressman Sablan wants to make sure the set-aside the Trump administration gave Governor Torres completely plugs the hole in the PSS budget.
The Commonwealth budgeted $37.7 million for PSS in the FY 20 Appropriations Act. Only $11.9 million has been conveyed to the school system, however, leaving a balance of $25.8 million.
"The CARES Act funding of $22.4 million for PSS covers most of that balance, but there is still a remaining $3.4 million needed to meet your commitment to teachers, staff, and students," Sablan wrote Torres.
"I urge you to use the full $5.6 million you now have for emergency education relief not only to make up the shortfall of $3.4 million still owed to PSS, but, with the balance of $2.2 million, to help cover the unbudgeted costs of providing online learning, while schools throughout the Marianas are closed by the pandemic."
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