After a virtual meeting, the Senate Nominating Committee did not recommend giving way to the appointment of Elba Aponte Sants as secretary of the Department of Education.
According to the Commission’s report to which Puerto Rico Metro gained access, the senators who make up the body were left with several doubts after the interpellation hearing held by the House of Representatives in Aponte Sants in February.
According to the document, questions fluctuate between plans to relocate students in southern Puerto Rico affected by the 2020 quakes and subsequently the pandemic, the plan to reopen schools for the school year, possible conflicts of interest, the measures that Education will take to prevent corruption and money theft, among other doubts.
With regard to the exercise of the civil servant during the hearing held by the Commission on 5 April, the evaluation explains that it did not abound in other matters such as special education, the plan-building module for areas affected by the quakes, the contracts awarded under their responsibility, the possible privatization of schools, the delivery of computers to students and teachers and on the face-to-face start of classes in the middle of the emergency due to the COVID 19.
“The Chair of the Nominating Committee was dissatisfied with the nominee’s responses to a number of concerns raised by parents and students over the past few weeks,” the report reads.
“Other senators were concerned about the department’s poor access to information to claims by its constituents in favor of the best interests of their student children,” he continues.
On the other hand, the document refers to an “ambiguous and vague follow-up plan” over the first 100 days that collects general aspects about vaccination improvements in schools as part of the reopening plans.
Several senators expressed concern about this due to the lack of information on particular areas and educational regions.
“After a thorough and embracing analysis of all the information collected on the nominee, submits to this High Legislative Body its Report where it is recommended not to give advice and consent to the appointment of Professor Elba L. Aponte Santos, for the position of Secretary of Education, as nominated by the Governor of Puerto Rico, Hon. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia Urrutia “, reads the conclusion the President of the Commission and the Senate, José Luis Dalmau Santiago.