Puerto Rico

The United States Congress retains ultimate de jure responsibility and power to govern the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. By and large the rights of Congress in this regard have been regularly strengthened over the century by a series of judicial decisions and rulings. The Foraker (1900) and Jones (1917) Acts that constituted the organic Acts through which Congress decided to exercise this responsibility were radically superseded by the passage in 1952 of legislation that set up the present-day Commonwealth structure. Nevertheless, to give a specific example of Congressional power, although the proposed Puerto Rican Constitution contained an amendment requiring that students matriculate exclusively in the public schools (except when these were unavailable), Congress deleted this amendment thereby reaffirming the rights of private, even confessional-related, education on the island.

Specific and de facto control of education is now vested in the Commonwealth's governmental institutions. The Department of Education is a department of state; its head and the second-in-command are known as the secretary and undersecretary of education. They are political appointees named by the island's popularly elected governor and confirmed by the island senate. The Department's executive staff is assisted by such statutorily created councils as The Council of Higher Education and The General Council of Education. Their powers of oversight extend to the private sector as well as to the public one. Thus, the Council of Higher Education, originally founded in 1966 in order to govern the University of Puerto Rico received in 1976 the mandate to regulate (i.e., accredit and license) the growing number of private postsecondary institutions of learning. These two functions—the governance of the University of Puerto Rico and the oversight of private colleges and universities—were separated from one another by Law 17 (1993). The purposes this law laid out were, among others, the licensing and accrediting of private university institutions, as well as the protecting of private institutions from official interference threatening their academic freedom through the agency of a new Council of Higher Education. (Law 17 has no application to such institutions as award religious titles, i.e., seminaries and the like.) In connection with its mission, the Council, whose members are also political appointees, publishes a wide variety of statistics and other kinds of documentation. The Secretary of Education is an ex officio member of the Council. Among the Council's powers are included that of imposing fines, issuing cease and desist orders, appointing committees of experts, and supervising the awarding of student scholarships both Federal and local to name a few. Meanwhile the General Council of Education exercises supervision of public primary, middle, and higher secondary schools, as well as, to a degree, private schools (licensing and curriculum). Thus, its functions correspond to those described in the Organic Law (Law 68) of 1990.

Law 149 was passed in 1999 and is also known as the Organic Law of the Department of Public Education of Puerto Rico; it created the possibility of developing Las Escuelas de la Comunidad (Community or Charter schools). Law 158, known as the Ley de la Carrera Magisterial (The Teaching Profession), also came into being in 1999.

Federal, i.e., that of the United States, implication in the island educational system closely resembles that existing between the Federal Government and the states. To give two examples of this, support of veterans' postwar training/education (the GI Bill of Rights) applies fully in Puerto Rico and has done so since its passage after the Second World War, with very important repercussions in the "undereducated" island. Also, Pell Tuition Grants for college and university students whose families' income is low are available and much taken advantage of. Some 90 percent of the 8,000 students registered at the Universidad del Turabo receive Pell Grants. Puerto Rican scholars and research scientists are eligible to apply to various Federal agencies for research support; aid of this sort has been and continues to be essential. The same or even higher percentages apply throughout the system.

For children of elementary, middle, and high school age, Federal programs (e.g., Head Start) have been regularly made available to Puerto Rico. Federal Affirmative Action programs have also resulted in a significant increase in the attendance by Puerto Rican college students at institutions based in the United States, often with considerable financial help. Sons and daughters of the Puerto Rican socio-economic élite, trained in the exclusive private secondary schools of the island, have been especially quick to take advantage of these opportunities.

It must be emphasized, however, that unlike the situation prevailing in pre-1930 Puerto Rico, the United States government plays no ostensible role in determining Puerto Rican educational policy. However, among the numerous laws approved in Puerto Rico over the years in order to meet the challenges of changing conditions are to be found some that respond to Federal laws and educational regulations. Thus, the 1998 Federal Higher Education Act, seeking to better the quality of teaching in the United States, required (in Section 207) the states (and Puerto Rico) to submit a number of reports to the Department of Education, including a regular up to date annual report concerning mainly teacher training. The Puerto Rican Consejo de Educación Superior was charged with implementing these requirements imposed by the Higher Education Act. Similarly, Puerto Rican Law 138 (the Educational Opportunities Act), passed in 1999, created two new programs, Supplementary Educational Aid and Scholarship Aid, which replaced the former Educational Fund and the Legislative Scholarship Program. Henceforth scholarships would be made available solely to entering students who had just earned their high school diploma with at least a GPA of 3.0. The eligibility of students for both aid programs was to be determined according to the requirements established in the above-mentioned Higher Education Act. The money would henceforth be awarded to the institution attended by the grantee and be made available to the students by that institution. Some 165,000 checks were disbursed in this way during fiscal 1999-2000. Thirty-eight million dollars thus passed through 31 college/university-type institutions and 62 other postsecondary establishments. In 2000-01 some 95,000 students are expected to benefit from aid awards totaling $41,000,000.