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• 1 2021-12-15T21:42:53-05:00 Policy Brief 15 A Brief on the Educational System in Puerto Rico plain 2021-12-17T20:47:38-05:00
  

  Key Points:

  1. A total of 265 public schools, or 24%, have closed, and 855 schools remained open in the 2018-2019 academic year. The total number of operational schools has declined from 1,515 at its peak in 2006 to 855 in 2018. (1)
  2. "The absolute population change between the 2017 and 2018 estimate was -129,848. Moreover, this significant population drop reflects the impact of Hurricane Maria on the Island’s population, which resulted an immediate outmigration, especially of families with children" (2). Meaning that some of these issues are only going to be resolved when the issues outlined in this point are also resolved. 
  3. Fixing the System is important, but making sure that the school's incorporate trauma-responsible learning must also be a priority.

  Introduction

  This policy brief outlines several key pooints and areas of concern with respect to the educational system in Puerto Rico post-Hurricane Maria. With increases in the decline of student enrollment in school, decreases in population, increases in school closures, and compounding events (earthquakes, Covid-19), the educational system in Puerto Rico is in trouble. That being said, there are a number of actors that have taken an interest, and active role, in attempting to fix the system and its flaws. 

  With all of the added events that have occurred after Hurricane Maria, the students in Puerto Rico are struggling to remain at their educational benchmarks. Following the aftermath of the Hurricane, the average Puerto Rican student missed 78 days of school (3). What is more, what followed the Hurricane was earthquakes, and after the earthquakes we reached the Pandemic. Puerto Rico and its students are struggling. Grade 4 and Grade 8 mathematical benchmarks show that in 2019, Puerto Rico declined in its achievement benchmarks since 2017. (4). What is more, President Trump and his administration obstructed the release of funds to aid in Puerto Rico’s infrastructural rebuild, and continued to obstruct them. A report by the Office of the Inspector General found that HUD officials knowingly missed deadlines for the releasing of the funds per Trump’s orders (5). In addition, former Secretary of Education Julia Keleher was indicted on fraud charges for defrauding the Educational System on the island out of $15 million dollars (6). All of this is to say that the island of puerto rico and its educational system is fighting more than just natural disasters. It is fighting corruption, racism, and infrastructural deficiencies. 

  This year, in November the Biden Administration approved the releasing of $990 million dollars to directly go to the aid of Puerto Rico’s educational system, and a total of $5 billion dollars to aid in Puerto Rico’s totalo infrastructural resolution, this money intending to aid in Post Hurricane Maria, Earthquake, and COVID-19 relief (7). With these funds, hopefully the island is able to address some of the fundamental issues with its educational system; 

  • Enrollment in public schools in Puerto Rico had been declining for several decades.
  • Puerto Rico's education system maintained a high concentration of economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities.
  • Puerto Rico's K–12 public school system had also faced long-standing concerns about lagging student performance and high school graduation rates.
  • The Puerto Rico education system has been facing financial strains due to several factors, including spending on additional services for students from low-income households and students with disabilities. (8)
   

  Policy Recommendations:

  The parallels between Puerto Rico’s educational system and that of New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina are strong and apparent. New Orleans’ system has seen improvement in the years after, its students and schools performing better than they were before Hurricane Katrina(9). This is the goal for Puerto Rico’s educational system, to perform better now, after Hurricane Maria, than it was before. In order for this to happen, simpy restoring the system that was in place before the Hurricane will not be enough, a revamping of the system must also occur. What this will look like, however, will depart from the almost entirely Public Charter School system that New Orleans has put in place after Hurricane Katrina (10), as Puerto Rico has to fix the educational system around the whole island, not just in one city. Some recommendations for how Puerto Rico should proceed are as follows;

  • Identify and engage key partners.
  • Perform additional analysis, detailed planning, and necessary adjustments to implement COAs.
  • Update cost estimates.
  • Conduct ongoing monitoring and formative evaluation.
  • Consider dependencies with other courses of action.
  • Rebuild public pre-K–12 school infrastructure.
  • Consolidate and rebuild University of Puerto Rico infrastructure.
  • Conduct landscape analysis and rebuild private nonprofit pre-K–12 school infrastructure.
  • Improve longitudinal data system to support evidence-based policy.
  • Perform multisector analysis to support resource allocation decisions related to schools.
  • Conduct landscape analysis of early-childhood interventions and care opportunities.
  • Consider the implementation of a student-based budget system.
  • Strengthen school leadership pipeline.
  • Develop and implement teacher pipeline program.
  • Create new and enhance existing after-school and summer learning opportunities.
  • Expand and update K–12 vocational programs.
  • Augment tele-education/online education.
  • Develop and implement a parent education program on school choice. (11)
  A final recommendation would be the coopting of the Fleur-de-Lis program that New Orleans public schools incorporated after Hurricane Katrina. Designed to help children with their mental health post-trauma. A description of the Fleur-de-Lis program is as follows;
  
  "Project Fleur-de-Lis (PFDL) was established to provide a tiered approach to triage and treat children experiencing trauma symptoms after Hurricane Katrina. PFDL provides school screening in schools in New Orleans and three tiers of evidence-based treatment (EBT) to disaster-exposed children utilizing a public health approach to meet the various needs of students referred to the program, some stemming from the disaster itself, some related to prior exposure to violence, and some relating to preexisting conditions and educational delays." (12)
  
  Like we learned in class, using the model formulated by New Orleans School system, Fleur-de-Lis, will help craft a Safe Environment for children to learn in. Using Fleur-de-Lis will help shape the Safe Healing and Learning Spaces environment that we discussed in class. Ensuring the mental health of the students will go a long way towards surmounting the other obstacles, that have been outlined so far, against their successful learning post Hurricane Maria. As outlined in the SHLS program, without a safe and structured learning environment, with relationships that prioritize this, long term negative effects on overall mental health and well-being can be seen on the children. (13) Following such a large trauma inducing event, this should be one of the most prioritized concepts.

   

• 1 2021-12-17T21:54:24-05:00 My Takeaways 2 My Takeaways from the Educational System in Puerto Rico and how to Fix it Following Hurricane Maria plain 2021-12-17T21:55:24-05:00 While much time and attention has been devoted to outlining what must be done to fix the educational system in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria, many of the infrastructural changes and programs have not been put in place yet due to a variety of factors. The foremost being the ongoing problems; earthquakes, COVID-19 pandemic, and the latter being the withholding of government grants by the Trump Administration. However, the Biden Administration has outlined their steps to providing aid to Puerto Rico, and with the influx of money, the hope is that the island will begin to, not just truly heal, but make progress and be better than when the Hurricane first made landfall. The Biden Administration's plan is outlined as follows;
  
  • Safely Reopening Schools and Sustaining Safe Operations: In collaboration with the Puerto Rico Department of Health (PRDH), the Puerto Rico Department of Education (PRDE) has conducted three vaccination campaigns designed to increase vaccine awareness and trust. Vaccination is mandatory for educators and staff in public schools. As of September 2021, more than 96% of school personnel was vaccinated, more than 75% of students ages 12 through 15 years were vaccinated, and more than 85% of students 16 years or older were vaccinated. Furthermore, in September 2021, a collaboration agreement was formalized between PRDE, the Puerto Rico Department of Health, and VocesPR to promote the vaccination of students 12 years or older, through the initiative Vacu Tour Back to School. Additionally, the PRDH developed a vaccination plan to provide the vaccination through phases. Phase I included the pediatricians, hospitals, and pharmacies achieving the vaccination of more than 20,000 children. Phase II starts later this fall and is called the Vacu Tour Kids. Vaccination clinics will be coordinated between the PRDH authorized providers and school directors.
  • Addressing the Academic Impact of Lost Instructional Time: PRDE will use ARP ESSER funds to expand and extend tutoring services provided by the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), prioritizing students with disabilities among other groups of students most impacted by the pandemic. 
  • Supporting the Educator Workforce: These strategies include, but are not limited to, improving school environments; providing needed academic resources, materials, and equipment; providing stipends; recruiting necessary school and Regional Education Office staff who support teachers; providing internships; offering professional development with credit hours, including specialized professional development to support teachers; and targeting support related to accelerated learning. (1)
  In the end, the road to progress is long, but Puerto Rico is on the right path; "Starting in July 2020, the Puerto Rico Department of Education distributed computers to connect to classes and implemented the Microsoft Teams system as the official teaching system. However, the digital divide has remained."(2), it just has to deal with issues from three separate natural disasters at once. And while that is certainly not easy, the island of Puerto Rico is resilient.