HAGÅTÑA (THE GUAM DAILY POST) —- As of Friday, the Guam Department of Education returned US$125 million in unliquidated American Rescue Plan funds to the U.S Department of Education, a direct result of the abrupt end of the liquidation period on 28 March.
But while local education officials and elected leaders have focused on getting the money back and pleading for additional time to liquidate, one senator believes what has occurred points toward a “financial crisis.”
Senator Shawn Gumataotao, the legislative chair on the Committee on Public Safety, Emergency Management and Guam National Guard, wrote Governor Lou Leon Guerrero on Friday about his concerns.
“The recent decision by the U.S Department of Education to move up the liquidation deadline for unexpended American Rescue Plan Act funds and information I received from the Guam Education Board regarding the management of federal funds issued to the Guam Department of Education point to a financial crisis at GDOE,” Gumataotao said.
He cautioned the governor that “if not mitigated soon,” the alleged “financial crisis” would have adverse impacts on “the safety, health and education of our students, their teachers and support staff across Guam’s 41 public schools.”
It’s not the first time that GDOE’s management of federal funds has been scrutinised. In fact, the U.S DOE placed GDOE on high-risk status in 2003, and up to 31 October 2023, a third-party fiduciary oversaw the local education system’s management of federal funds.
This means that for over a year, federal funds were sent directly to GDOE instead of to the third-party fiduciary. This roughly corresponds with the time that GDOE had been given to spend the ARPA funds when Secretary of Education Linda McMahon ended the liquidation period on 28 March.
On Friday, GDOE Superintendent Kenneth Erik Swanson wrote to McMahon requesting that the US$125 million in unliquidated ARPA funds be reinstated, and the liquidation period be extended to March 2026 to provide GDOE one year to draw down on the funds, given Guam’s unique circumstances.
As it stands, 13 ARPA-funded capital improvement projects at public schools, which according to GDOE are 40 percent complete, may not be finished.
“Recognising the urgency of the situation before us, I respectfully urge your office to issue an executive order that would prioritise an assessment of all federal funds issued to GDOE and to deploy financial and grants management personnel from other executive branch agencies to provide GDOE with technical assistance which is necessary to preserve federal resources for their intended use,” the Gumataotao told Leon Guerrero in the letter.
He appealed to the governor under the belief that they “share a desire to prevent the financial crisis at GDOE” from impacting public school youth because of a “failure by our local education department to properly administer critical federal assistance.”
Gumataotao believes that GDOE’s situation “threatens the financial solvency of the government of Guam and our collective ability to deliver critical public services now and in the fiscal years going forward.”
The governor thanked Gumataotao for his advocacy and expressed that she valued his engagement. However, she clarified that she does not have authority to issue an executive order that would unilaterally mandate changes and affect the operations of GDOE.
“That power rests with the Guam Legislature, which has delegated that authority to the Guam Education Board,” the governor said in a response to the senator’s letter.
The governor assured the senator that despite not having the authority to issue an executive order, she was in the process of setting up a conference call with federal education officials to push for the extension of the ARPA funds.
She encouraged Gumataotao to pursue legislative measure that would further the initiatives he believes are necessary to improve GDOE.
“As a policymaker, you are uniquely positioned to enact laws that can directly impact and support the department’s long-term goals, from structural oversight to fiscal accountability,” Leon Guerrero said to Gumataotao…..PACNEWS