Senators Deem Education Hearing Another Frustrating Experience With Lack of Information

Senate President Donna Frett-Gregory and other lawmakers were not satisfied with some of the responses from Department of Education officials when they came before the Committee on Education and Workforce Development Tuesday to discuss and examine plans for the January 2022 reopening of schools for in-person learning.

Members of the committee were either being provided with unsatisfactory and or inadequate answers to pertinent, general and specific questions about particular schools whose doors were closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Some of the same schools suffered structural damages since 2017 as a result of the destruction following the passage of hurricanes Irma and Maria, and are still dilapidated or in substandard conditions.

Questions ranged from the dropout rate of students to the quality of meals served for lunch, including the temperature and size of classrooms. Senators clearly expressed their frustration with several of the unclear responses from the Education Department officials.

“It is always very difficult, I don’t know why it has to be that difficult. I actually worked for the Department of Education at some point in time in my career, but it always seems very difficult for us to get information from this particular team,” Ms. Frett-Gregory said when it was her turn to seek clarity about matters raised by other members of the committee.

“It becomes very frustrating because it seems as if we are just spinning our wheels. Every time it comes down to the Legislature, we do our rounds and we really get nothing from it and I am one that believes if we're going to have these types of meetings we have to have outcomes,” she told Education Commissioner Racquel-Berry Benjamin and the other Dept. of Education officials who were subpoenaed on Nov. 23 after they failed to testify before the committee.

Reminding them that she was once in their position years ago when she was employed at D.O.E. as the department's commissioner, Ms. Frett-Gregory stated, “I have come before this body; I can't tell you the number of times and I was not happy about it but I came because it was my responsibility."