What Can a Local Government Unit Do for Public Education in the Philippines?
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Public school education in the Philippines is managed centrally by the Department of Education (DepEd). At the municipal level, there is a small unit called the Local School Board (LSB), which main task is to allocate a special education fund, collected from an additional 1 percent tax on real properties. The fund is intended to answer auxiliary needs of local schools. Unfortunately, as former Naga City mayor Jesse Robredo once stated , "Decision making has been confined to this eight-person board where most often, “educational priorities” are being defined by its two most powerful members: the local chief executive and the division superintendent". Although the special education fund was designed to meet only supplementary needs of the local schools, there was a time in the small town of Paete, Laguna, during which a major portion of its fund was used to pay for the salaries of some of its public high school teachers. I have had the rare opportunity of witnessing several m