TO: Members of the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico
TO: Members of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico
SUBJECT: Denunciation of Fund Supplanting and Liquidation of Regional Headquarters
Puerto Rico is facing a generational crime financed by public funds. While the Financial Oversight and Management Board demands austerity in critical areas, the Department of Education (PRDE) continues to operate as a political employment scheme that consumes $5.5 billion of dollars without delivering minimal academic results.
The Fraud of Federal Fund Supplanting
This letter serves as a formal denunciation of a systemic and illegal practice: the waste and supplanting 5.5 Billion dollars of federal funds. The PRDE has converted federal allocations—specifically intended for academic recovery and direct student support—into a “petty cash” fund to sustain a bureaucracy that the general fund can no longer maintain.
- Federal funds are being used to supplant administrative positions that have no correlation to academic achievement.
- Billions of dollars in emergency funds and external consulting programs are being depleted in contracts for lawyers and “advisors” who serve only to perpetuate unnecessary regional offices.
- Meanwhile, students in the classroom lack basic materials, updated textbooks, and decent infrastructure. Using federal funds to keep bureaucratic “fat” alive is an affront to fiscal transparency.
The Collapse of Academic Achievement
The justification for any educational system is learning; ours has systematically failed. Over the last decade:
- In Mathematics, performance dropped to a catastrophic 20.9%.
- In the 2022 NAEP national tests, 8th-grade math performance was so deficient it rounded to 0% proficiency. Despite this failure, the budget per student is among the highest, proving that the money is lost in transit: between central headquarters and regional offices.
Administrative Fat: Central and Regional Offices
We demand the total closure of the seven regional offices. These structures are currently:
- Political Havens: Spaces used to appoint “figurehead” directors with no training in Special Education, chosen solely for partisan loyalty.
- 19th Century Micromanagement: While the world utilizes AI, the PRDE forces teachers into manual processes and electronic attendance systems that steal valuable instructional time.
- Criminal Digital Divide: It is unacceptable to have 5 Mbps connections in 2026. Distributing outdated equipment without robust internet is an act of sabotage against the island’s future.
Our Final Demand
We demand a total re-engineering based on successful models, such as Finland’s:
- Real Decentralization: Ensure that funds reach the school directly, not the region.
- Salary Dignity: A teacher’s salary must be higher than that of any external contractor.
- End to Grade Fraud: Cease the policy of “giving away grades” during summer sessions to inflate promotion statistics. This is both immoral and illegal.
Public education cannot continue to be the spoils of war for defeated politicians. If the Oversight Board seeks efficiency, it must close the offices that do not educate and prosecute those who use federal funds to supplant and maintain a failed bureaucracy.
Save our children. Close the bureaucracy. Liberate the schools.