Sen. Lorraine Berry on Wednesday enlisted the help of Orville Kean, University of the Virgin Islands president, in making sense of the Department of Education's budget.
During a UVI budget hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, which she chairs, Berry asked Kean if he could assist the committee in investigating and assessing Education's budget.
"Yes," said Kean. "Absolutely."
Berry said she cannot understand the figures submitted by Education. "Something is dreadfully wrong," she said. The Education budget asks for $121.3 million from the General Fund, and almost $25 million in federal funding, for a total of $146 million with $1.1 million allocated for supplies.
Berry said Education now has about 3,300 employees. The number of school children has decreased from 25,000 a couple years ago to the current 22,000. "Yet," she said, "they are asking for more money. The request should be lower, not higher."
With approximately 22,000 children in the system now, the amount of money for supplies would work out to about $50 per child per school year-even as teachers in the territory have said they routinely pay for classroom supplies out of their own pockets.
Berry said she wants to determine how much money is used for teaching, and how much for administration and other purposes, and "develop some kind of ratio."
"Then we can be specific," she said, "I want to make sure those dollars go to teaching." Kean and Berry plan to meet next week..
Berry postponed Thursday's hearings on the Industrial Development Commission and the Technology Enterprise Act for further study on each measure. No date was given, but the committee will commence the remaining budget hearings Nov. 9.
Senate Post Auditor Campbell Malone will have completed all his budget analyses by Nov. 3, Berry said, and the committee will complete the budget process by Nov. 30. The budget will then go to the Rules Committee and then to the full Senate.
