While Education Commissioner La Verne Terry told senators Thursday the department is working hard to reduce the dropout rate, Sen. Nereida “Nellie” Rivera-O’Reilly told Terry she wasn’t producing results fast enough.
“It takes more than Ph.D.s,” Rivera-O’Reilly said. “It takes a level of caring.”
According to Terry’s testimony before the Budget and Appropriations Committee, 423 V.I. students dropped out of school last year. She said data collected by the department shows a 5 percent dropout rate across the territory, and that grades nine and 10 are impacted most.
While Rivera-O’Reilly acknowledged that Terry’s almost-30-page-long testimony was thorough, she said it didn’t really address the challenges to education, nor the solutions. She said children are still dropping out of school and ending up in the graveyard or in prison.
While a variety of Education topics were covered during the day—including the gang problem and the department’s management of federal funds—senators returned several times to the issue of keeping children in school, and what can be done if they decide to leave.
In response, Terry cited the department’s February symposium, which brought together children, policy makers and teachers to figure out why students dropped out and what could be done to stop it.
Terry assured senators the department is working hard to keep more children from dropping out, while also stepping up safety measures, providing opportunities for professional development for teachers, and strengthening the ties between schools and parents.
In other Education topics, Sen. Louis Patrick Hill took issue with the department’s plan to install more surveillance cameras and purchase hand-held body scanners in a move to make schools safer.
“I would think we were talking about a prison system,” he said. He asked Terry why schools here are struggling to deal with the problem of gangs, when there are inner-city schools on the mainland that have successfully handled the same problem.
Terry told him that the department is sometimes stifled by all of the federal funds they receive and the guidelines that often come with the money.
She said her hands are also tied by union contracts. As an example, she cited a rule stating that principals can’t work during the summer.
Hill then asked Terry, as well as the insular superintendents for both districts, to submit a list of the things they felt were hampering efforts to change the school system for the better.
For next year, the department is requesting a general fund allocation of about $192 million. They are also requesting a miscellaneous budget of about $1.4 million to cover various scholarships and programs.
The department also expects to se about $6.6 million in federal stimulus funds and $40 million in other federal funds.
In attendance Thursday were Sens. Craig Barshinger, Carlton "Ital" Dowe, Hill, Wayne A.G. James, Shawn-Michael Malone, Terrence "Positive" Nelson, Usie Richards, Rivera-O’Reilly, Sammuel Sanes, Patrick Simeon Sprauve and Michael Thurland.
