How United States Policy is Hurting Puerto Rico’s Students

Author: Chris Soto, MPA

Overview

Public school students in Puerto Rico are suffering under the worst learning conditions in the United States. What would normally be considered unfathomable in any of the fifty states is the reality for 240,000 students throughout the archipelago.

For too long, the conversation regarding Puerto Rico’s education system has ignored a fundamental truth: U.S. government policies have systematically discriminated against Puerto Rican students.

Key Findings

• Federal Policy Discrimination – Despite being considered a state under the United States’ two main education laws (ESSA & IDEA), Puerto Rico students are still excluded from benefiting from federal programs. This exclusion has resulted in the loss of tens of millions of dollars to support students.
• Underfunding and Resource Inequities – Federal funds notwithstanding, Puerto Rico is the only state under ESSA with one sole revenue source which has resulted in an overreliance on federal funding (45%, vs. 13% state avg.) and the lowest per-student funding ratio in the country.

Consequences

• U.S. policy discrimination has caused students with disabilities and students in rural communities to lose tens of millions in federal funding.
• Structural underfunding has created an equity deficit that has made it impossible for Puerto Rico to compete with state and D.C. counterparts.
• Challenging learning conditions have left Puerto Rican students at the bottom nationally in academic assessments.

Policy Recommendations

1. Immediate congressional action is needed to treat Puerto Rico on par with—or even better than—its state counterparts and Washington, D.C. that address acute inequities.
2. Improving the Puerto Rico education system requires a bold shift away from the one-size fits all, U.S. educational system paradigm which would present Puerto Rico with an opportunity to reimagine its educational system to best meet the needs of students.

Conclusion

Absent immediate Congressional action to address historic equity deficits or changes to Puerto Rico’s territorial status, students on the island will continue to face sustained discrimination under federal policy. Puerto Rican students continue to be failed by a U.S. education system that imposes unrealistic expectations without the equitable means to meet them.