National Planner Says People Need 'Financial Relief'
The national planner in the
Carl Hacker, director of the government's Economic Policy, Planning and Statistics Office (EPPSO), called for reducing or eliminating student registration fees for public schools “to give some much needed financial relief to people.”
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Hacker expressed concern in a letter to President Litokwa Tomeing over the recent dramatic increase in food and other costs hitting residents in the
On Majuro, gas prices hit $5.70 at the pump this week, the power company raised electric rates more than 15 percent in April to 31 cents and 39 cents per kilowatt hour, respectively, for residential and business customers and rice prices have leaped from under $8 per 20 pound bag to more than $10, with further increases expected with the arrival of the next shipment of rice next week.
Hacker said the surge in food prices “is of particular worry not just for Majuro, but for Ebeye and the outer islands, where food costs are about 20-25 percent higher than Majuro, on average. How could we, as government, help out in this situation?
“Policies or directives that can help put money back into people’s pockets will become more important as a result of the rising cost of living, particularly given that wages and salaries have not risen as fast as the cost of living for many years.”
He suggested a review of taxes but also recommended taking action on public school fees.
Eliminating public school student registration fees can give much needed financial relief to people, said Hacker, adding it will have little social disruption at a small cost to government operations. During the last four years, all public school instituted student registration fees that parents must pay at the start of the year in August.
“I firmly believe this fee elimination or fee reduction to a more nominal fee ($5-$10 per student) would be very beneficial for many
The country is facing an unemployment rate over 30 percent and the minimum wage is $2 per hour.
Hacker said the school fees “hurt larger families,” and the Ministry of Education “has a large enough budget.”
Some families have four-to-six students in school, so are hit with more than $100 in registration fees each school year -- on top of the usual uniform, supplies and other costs.
Hacker said the fees were instituted by the public schools largely because of problems the schools have accessing funding through the Ministry of Education, which has the largest budget of any ministry in the country, receiving about 25 percent of the $124 million national budget.
He said eliminating fees “would be a good poverty alleviation policy, since it would affect primarily lower income households.”
