The Puerto Rican Senate today approved a resolution proposing an investigation into the destination, use, administration and condition of all public schools closed between January 2011 and January 2021 despite the People’s Democratic Party’s (PPD) attempt to limit the number of schools that could be part of the investigation.
The measure – written by the senator Puerto Rico Independence Party (PIP), Mary of Lourdes Santiago– It had the unanimous support of the legislature.
“My author’s resolution proposes to conduct a survey on the destination, use, administration and status of public schools closed between January 2011 and January this year. However, the tragedy of closing schools began much earlier. will be seen in a report that was sent to our offices by the Center for Habitat Reconstruction, from 2007 to 2018, 44% of public educational spaces were closed and that process began to accelerate after 2011, “he said. senator during maturity in the chamber.
Prior to approval, the spokesman for the majority of the Democratic People’s Party (PPD), Javier Aponte Dalmau, tried to change the measure to remove allusions to former governor Alejandro García Padilla and then-governor Ricardo Rosselló. In addition, the changes have left the number of schools closed to be investigated by the Senate. However, the amendments proposed by Aponte Dalmau were defeated. Legislative minorities in Santiago, independent senator José Vargas Vidot, the New Progressive Party (PNP) delegation, Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana (MVC) senators and the Dignity Project senator voted against the delegation’s proposed amendments. most PPD.
The PIP legislator alluded to the closure of the program Lola Rodríguez de Tío School in Carolina where a vocational school was closed for students with functional diversity, who were later relocated to other schools “that do not meet their needs.”
According to the legislator, a study by Puerto Rican economist José Caraballo Cueto, the closure of the school from 2017 to 2019 left a balance of 58,606 students displaced. The academician also said that the closure of schools at that time brought $ 34 million to government houses. However, the maintenance of these facilities increased to $ 311.7 million, the legislator said.
Likewise, Santiago claimed that, according to a report by the Center for Investigative Journalism, out of 960 schools closed, only 4% generated revenue for the state. “The closures did not respond to any consideration or pedagogy, planning or community,” he denounced.
For his part, the new progressive senator Henry Neumann supported Santiago’s measure and questioned the number of schools closed in the last four years. “It simply came to our notice then [la exsecretaria del Departamento de Educación, Julia Keleher] and something that is not understood in any civilized society is the closure of schools. A government must try to bring education closer to the student, “Neumann said.
While the new progressive senator Carmelo Ríos called for the evaluation of these schools to be accelerated so that they can be reused. “For me, it’s not a question of whether those before or now have failed, it’s: how do we solve it?”, Ríos argued.