The educator pay raise was widely celebrated by administration and Guam Department of Education officials yesterday as long overdue. But as it turns out, there’s no firm plan yet on how to pay for it. That was the surprising revelation from the GDOE Fiscal Year 2023 budget hearing today.

Education officials appeared before the Appropriations Committee seeking a $268 million budget for next fiscal year. But it doesn’t include the estimated $30 million it will cost to cover the new teacher payraises. In fact, GDOE superintendent Jon Fernandez acknowledge they’re not even sure how to pay for the estimated $10 million to cover the increases for the balance of this fiscal year.

Which came as an apparent surprise to oversight chair Senator Telena Nelson. Fernandez said, "Well, right now, we would need federal funding to be able to support that."

Asked if they have the federal funding to absorb the cost of $10 million for FY2022, Fernandez replied, "We have federal funds, we have a balance that if USDOE could be used to help with this but we need to get their concurrence first and that’s part of what our due diligence is. Otherwise, I’ve informed the lieutenant governor that, you know, if we don’t get this approved then we need to figure out if there are any other revenue sources that can be used otherwise the commitment that’s being made is not going to be able to be realized."

Fernandez says they will submit a request as soon as possible, but they also need to come up with the cash upfront, because USDOE would only reimburse what GDOE spends. And what about the additional $30 million for next year?

"That’s something that we look to you and the governor to determine - where those funding will come from, because as we already presented, its $268 million just to kinda keep the lights on and pay for current operations," he said.