Dear Source:
Today Thursday October 18, 2007 the Virgin Islands Legislature turned down Governor John deJongh's nominee for Commissioner of Education of the US Virgin Islands. After weeks of recriminations and innuendos and outright accusations that the nominee had a mysterious past that was critical to be resolved before confirmation. Many of the Senators apparently did their "due diligence" in uncovering unfavorable information and testimonies that convinced them she was not the right person for that assignment. The 27th. Legislature by a vote of 11 against and 4 in favor turned down the nomination of Dr. Lynn Spampinato. Amid declarations by many Senators and others in the community that there are competent "local" persons that qualify to hold that position in the deJongh/Francis administration, we are waiting to learn who these qualified persons are.
Now that the Senate failed to approve the Governor's nominee amid claim by many that there are qualified local persons available to assume that position and effectively do what the Governor was assigning Dr. L. Spampinato to do for the VI public school system. Now it is the turn of those who claim that there are so many locally qualified persons to publicly identify those individuals that the Governor may consider them. I have always had difficulty with persons who criticize others but fail to offer some positive alternatives. Unfortunately, there are too many of those in this community who give a lot of criticism but offer nothing positive in return, it is those individuals that retards progress in this community.
The Senate exercised their statutory duty of advice and consent in rejecting the Governors nominee. Now we are back to the search for another qualified individual to meet the challenges that our Department of Education presents and to lead in the improvement of our public school system. We need to reduce the number of drop-outs, increase the number of graduates, both males and females, reduce violence and crime in our schools, improve the physical plants of our schools, improve the quality of our teachers and provide more in-service training, ensure that our students are proficient in the 3'Rs from in the elementary school and improve our students' scores on national and local tests. We need to maximize the use of all federal funds and not allow any federal funds to be returned for lack of use.
We would hope that the zeal used by the Senators to justify their rejection of Dr. Lynn Spampinato would also be used to correct other irregularities in our local government. Irregularities such as the lack of enforcement of all kinds of laws and regulations. The lack of proper oversight by the Senate over various executive agencies and the judiciary is unacceptable. The fact that they have prevailed in showing the Governor "who run things" in government they should use similar energy to provide policies that will give directions to the other two branches of government. The Senate should also clean up their own house, by hiring professionals to do professional work for the people and to be more transparent. That is the statutory duty of the legislature, their oversight responsibility. If the Senate does their job completely and consistently their $85,000.00 pay may be justified.
J. J. Estemac
St. Thomas
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