By The Star Staff
The U.S. Department of Education told the incoming government of Puerto Rico to decentralize the Education Department and eliminate political influences to improve public education.
The suggestions were made in a report titled “Puerto Rico Educational Transformation Guidebook,” which provides recommendations for a pathway for local leaders to continue the decentralization of education implementation efforts on the island.
“To accomplish the goal of providing a top-tier educational system in Puerto Rico, two principal strategies were agreed upon -- decentralizing decision making, and eliminating the political influence in education,” the report says. “The first strategy empowers school communities to make decisions based on local student needs, allocate resources swiftly and effectively, support improvements in academic outcomes, and shift decision making closer to the communities that are closest to students.”
“The second strategy decouples the political structures from the selection process for school and district leaders,” the agency said. “Utilizing a merit-based model increases trust, prevents attrition, and ensures the best candidates are selected for the work of leadership, regardless of party affiliation.”
The transformation is undergirded by decentralizing the unitary system. In the technical language of education, this means moving from a unitary system where authority sits exclusively in the State Educational Agency (SEA) to one where decision-making responsibilities are distributed between the SEA and the Local Educational Agencies (LEAs). These changes combine for an education system that is more responsive to local communities, allowing them to directly access federal funds, enable a more efficient procurement system, improve the hiring and retention of teachers, and rebuild overall trust in the public education system.
The guidebook, addressed to governor-elect Jenniffer González Colón, provides key actions that the federal agency said will be essential to ensuring a successful continuation of the decentralization work. Those actions will support Puerto Rico’s goal of launching the first autonomous LEA by July 2025, the U.S. Education Department said.
“This historic transformation of the Puerto Rico Department of Education (PRDE) will catalyze change and create a system that empowers school communities, makes better use of precious federal and island resources, increases accountability and trust, and most importantly, improves student opportunities and outcomes,” outgoing Education Secretary Miguel Cardona wrote in the guidebook. “The Federal commitment of unprecedented support will continue alongside the very capable leaders in Puerto Rico as this transformation continues.”
Puerto Rico has the seventh largest school district in the United States and has been undergoing a transformation of its education system, supported by the federal department. After natural disasters and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the island’s current unitary education system has struggled to overcome longstanding challenges that prevent it from delivering a high-quality education to its students.
It is unclear how expected sweeping changes in the federal Education Department with the election of Donald Trump as president will impact the transformation process of Puerto Rico’s public education system going forward. Trump has vowed to dismantle the U.S. Education Department’s core functions (see related story on page 7).
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