Puerto Rico’s Schools After Maria

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By Lauren Ogbogu

Devastating Hurricane Maria first hit land on September 17, 2017 and did not dissipate until October 3. According to the statistics generated by FEMA, the toll that Hurricane Maria took on the US territory of Puerto Rico was more grave than initially reported. The death toll was originally believed to be around sixty-four, but later it was found that this number, grossly under reported, is actually estimated to be closer to 1,000, although the Puerto Rican government is still investigating these exact numbers. Power was cut off to the entire island for several weeks, cell service was down, individuals unable to contact family members, and within forty-five days over 30,000 people had been cared for as patients in hospitals. This storm ravaged the island and brought to many an air of hopelessness and trauma, especially in the wake of sparse and lagging assistance from national leadership in the ongoing aftermath and restructuring. 

Rebuilding after a storm of this magnitude required more than just financial assistance and immediate availability and dispersal of critical resources like clean water and food. It also called for a collective healing of the trauma that came with the sheer amount of loss and destruction that had consumed these communities. In this moment, people turned to their local schools as hubs of social services and psychological healing, where community members engaged with each other to help move past this terrifying natural disaster. After a prolonged six weeks following the storms dissipation, schools slowly began to reopen and students were able to return back to their scheduled curriculum and try to find a sense of routine and structure in the wake of the confusion outside the walls of the classroom. Unfortunately, for many of these students the normalcy of education was quickly interrupted as school closures began in various parts of the island. 

These closures are a part of a cycle that has been tormenting the island for several years. Low student enrollment rates have lead to a mass closure of community schools due to funding issues alongside a rapid decline in the Puerto Rican population. While dropout rates are much lower than they were in the 1990s, school enrollment rates in Puerto Rico continue to steadily drop based on several economic trends, such as their increasing national debt mirrored by a stagnant economy.  Government agencies and many NGOs are taking a deeper look into the problem and working on finding solutions but their differences in outlooks and perspectives creates a rift that often stifles progress. 

The UDHR & Puerto Rico’s Schools

According to article 26 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, every human being is entitled to the inalienable right to an education. Education serves as not only a mechanism for social change but is also the method through which individuals and communities achieve economic attainment and upward mobility. This is also reflected in the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights which states in Article 13: “The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to education. They agree that education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity, and shall strengthen the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. They further agree that education shall enable all persons to participate effectively in a free society, promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations and all racial, ethnic or religious groups, and further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace”.  

As these documents and articles have been recognized by the global powers of the world as agreed upon rights endowed to every individual regardless of discriminatory markers, there needs to be a bridge created between the theory and practice of these ideals. In the case of Puerto Rico, the lack of an immediate and effective response from world leaders not only resulted in a grave loss of life but it also uprooted a whole way of living for these communities. While there is continued effort and visibility put on the the rebuilding of Puerto Rico, not all are in agreement about how the Island can move forward and progress and what actions need to be taken to ensure sustainable growth and recovery. 

Teachers Fighting for School Stability

While the rest of the world looked in dismay, the delay in the reopening of schools did not come as a surprise to many Puerto Ricans. It has been largely recognized, that given the rapidly declining population of Puerto Rico, there have been a number of school closures due to lack of enrollment and inadequate resources. A decline in the Puerto Rican population can be attributed to increasingly low fertility rates and emigration due to economic stagnation. As students and families vacate the island and the enrollment rates have dwindled, it has now become a vital issue of discussion on what the fiscal responsibility is of territory leaders to assess the dispersal of critical resources to schools. There have been debates regarding the increasing privatization of schools as well as demonstrations by teachers against this model.

Puerto Rico may be adopting a tactic similar to that of post-Katrina New Orleans. Following the aftermath of the devastating storm that waged war on the city for over a week, education reform initiatives moved swiftly and drastically changed the landscape of the recovering metropolis. According to the Washington Post, “The city’s 7,000 teachers were fired. The state took over almost all the schools and turned them into charters. Students were no longer assigned to schools via attendance boundaries; instead, they decided where they wanted to go and entered lotteries for a chance to enroll” (Brown, 2015). While most measurable data would show the improvements in the educational attainment in schools post-privatization, there has been an apparent disenfranchising of students of color, those living in poverty, English language learners (ELL) and students with disabilities. Since the schools are privately run, there is much less community and parental choice in the initiatives and other major decisions that happen that immediately affect their children. Because of this, vulnerable populations are not always afforded the protection and promotion of equity that they are entitled to.

Comparably, in the case of Puerto Rico, secretary of education Julia Keleher has already cited the cases of Katrina as “a point of reference” for school reform, as she noted in a tweet on October 26, just three weeks after the storm. Even before the ravages of the storm, Keleher’s plans to privatize schooling were no secret; she had closed down 179 schools that May citing low enrollment. Keleher hosted Betsy DeVos, United States Secretary of Education and a booster of private education, a month after the storm to further the on-going initiative to turn Puerto Rico’s schools into for-profit institutions. According to the Convention on the Rights of the child, Article 28 clearly states, “All children have the right to a primary education, which should be free. Wealthy countries should help poorer countries achieve this right”. In the wake of the storm, more than 150,000 students have no school to attend as schools remain closed. The Puerto Rican Department of Education has announced that one-fifth of the schools will not reopen.  This has sparked protests and debates from teachers and community members who are working to bring a sense of stability and dignity back to their students and communities. 

The move for a swift privatization of community schools in Puerto Rico is in violation of Article 26 of the UDHR which guarantees free education to all. It is evident that the storm is being used as a makeshift alibi to mask the fact that this territories leaders are looking to churn a profit rather than uphold the rights and dignity of community members. Since the storm has made several of the school buildings and campuses uninhabitable until further action is taken to restore them, this works in favor of the government as they choose to kept these schools close, inhibiting the continued curriculum for children in those communities. 

Fighting to support the rights of their students and the dignity of their communities, teachers and community leaders have rallied and held demonstrations to push back against rapid school closure and encroaching privatization. The Puerto Rican Teachers Federation (Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico, FMPR), held a civil disobedience protest with pressure from communities and parents to demand the reopening of their schools and were dismissed by Keleher and other members of the Department of Education. Although peaceful, the protest was interrupted by authorities who then took twenty-one teachers into custody. Seeing no help from political leaders, educators began taking matters into their own hands, using personal time and resources to clear the schools of debris in order to make them usable. They reached out to international volunteers and donors to help them recreate their classrooms as safe spaces where their students  could thrive. As Anna Diaz-Serrano, an international volunteer, noted,  “The main thing is the kids. They were traumatized. You’re [asleep] in the middle of the night and a hurricane blows the roof off your house. Your parents grab you while you are half asleep and everything is a commotion. Then, afterwards, you see your parents struggling without work, electricity or water. They need art, they need escape, they need normalcy. That’s why the teachers are asking for crayons, coloring books, backpacks, notebooks and pencils.” (White, 2017). 

As these individuals work to protect the rights and dignity of their students in need, they are actively upholding the frameworks set out by documents such as the UDHR and Convention on the Rights of the Child. In their actions to support their communities and engaging in grassroots efforts to promote education and economic and social well-being, they are actively working to create global citizens who work not only to spread knowledge but to spread compassion as well. In the midst of uncertainty, these educators and community members bring hope to Puerto Rico as they recover and rebuild after this trying time.  

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