14 Mar 2013

CNMI schools lose funding amid US sequestration

2:37 pm on 14 March 2013

The public school system in the Northern Marianas is set to lose more than three and a half million US dollars in federal grants as a result of sequestration.

The sequestration, a five-percent across the board federal budget cut, took effect on March the 1st after the US President, Barack Obama, and Congressional Republicans couldn't agree on an alternative debt reduction.

The federal programmes officer, Tim Thornburgh, told lawmakers in Saipan that public schools will only be receiving 25 million dollars in funding from the first of July.

This is the second round of funding cuts for schools in CNMI, after other forms of grants were reduced on March the first.