Yanira Raíces Vega: The New Secretary of Education’s Plans and Promises

Dynamic, jovial, but nervous when facing the accusations that are already leveled against her, the appointed Secretary of Education, Dr. Yanira Raíces Vega, assured this Tuesday that she will not turn the agency into a campaign committee again and that she will elect his work team according to his “capabilities”.

For this reason, he alleged that under his direction the former electoral commissioner of the New Progressive Party (PNP), Héctor Joaquín Sánchez, would not return to the agency, much less be appointed its undersecretary. However, he will keep Ángel Toledo López, who lasted for about seven days as secretary and was rejected by legislators due to his political expressions on social networks, as assistant secretary for Academic Affairs of Education.

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Are you a PNP activist? Primera Hora questioned her during an interview given one day after she was appointed by Governor Pedro Pierluisi to lead the largest agency in the country.

Raíces Vega responded: “I am an educator. I come back and say it, I am an educator. Like everyone, we have our ideal, like everyone”.

He argued that such an ideal does not cloud his positions in favor of the agency for which he has worked for the past 24 years, in different leadership positions.

“People are chosen for their abilities, and as I say, working for results,” said the official, who becomes the fifth Secretary of Education appointed by Pierluisi in his two and a half years in office.

Likewise, she explained that the photo that has been displayed of her together with the former electoral commissioner of La Palma was because she invited him, like many other agency employees and even politicians from both parties in the Bayamón region – where she served as regional director -, on her 50th birthday. She regretted that they only took one of the photos to attack her.

For teachers and their unions, meanwhile, he promised to be a “helping hand.”

“As for the teachers, I want them to be my best teachers. I want to distinguish them and I, as a secretary, have to look for alternatives, be it training, be it infrastructure, be it better conditions, but we have to carry out analyzes that correspond to certain realities, to certain contexts. But from me, I will listen to them. I come back and say it, I come from a family of educators, ”she said.

On controversial issues, he stipulated that alliance or “charter” schools are already established by legislation and that there is a circular letter that establishes the action that must be taken when dealing with everything related to teaching with a gender perspective. Since both matters are public policy, he pointed out that it will be governed by what is established.

Meanwhile, he alluded to the fact that under the administration of former secretary Julia Keleher – who pleaded guilty to fraud and served her sentence in a West Virginia jail last year – she served as associate secretary and that she only executed the consolidation plan or school closures that her boss at the time outlined. She accepted, however, that she was part of the evaluating group.

“When there was the process of Dr. Keleher, she established the rules through public policy by circular letter and they were carried out, and she established it and it was executed,” said Raíces Vega, reiterating that whoever determined which school was closed was the ex-secretary.

However, he justified the action by establishing that in this period “we had schools where we had little enrollment and a lot of infrastructure.”

He alluded to the fact that current public policy does not give way to the “consolidation” process, so his administration would not focus on the issue.

However, he accepted that there is a guideline for the transformation of the educational system, which has its sights on decentralization.

“We follow the public policy, the public policy of the governor. But, there are a few things that I can contribute with my experience. Example: There are three organizational values ​​that I always use for teamwork, (which are) communication, transparency, (and) accountability for decision-making ”, he explained.

She said that, as Secretary of Education, she will put into operation all the capacities that she has managed to forge within the agency, especially as a planner.

“I am very excited. Very excited. So it’s an honor that the governor called me. So I say that I feel, right, the expression I use is like a fish in water, because this is my house. It’s 24 years of service here in Education. So I have projects, I have carried out projects, I have worked on major projects. So it is feeling that all that experience I can now take to a work plan to find what we are all looking for, a quality and excellent education in Puerto Rico,” she said.

At present, Raíces Vega accepted that it is focused on the return to school, mainly in aspects of cleaning and infrastructure of the schools, as well as in the confirmation process before the Senate.

On the first topic, he made it clear that there will be no problem with the lack of human resources when the school year begins in mid-August.

Meanwhile, regarding his confirmation, he alluded to the fact that he has already begun to have contact with both legislators and mayors. He said that he is not concerned about the process.

“I am so, so, so excited and motivated, because they have been messages of support” that she has received so far, said the official.

In his plans is to form his own work team. But, he noted that he will take his time making the appointments.

“I want the space, because I want to set up my work team to be able to develop my action plans,” he specified.

Part of her future projects for Education is expanding the project of alliances with organizations that she established when she was regional director of Bayamón for the benefit of public schools. By way of example, she stated that she had projects for the agencies to provide services in the same schools and another with the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, called Ley.

It will also emphasize more and better offers in vacation schools, as well as the establishment of bilingual schools, aspects that are part of the campaign promise made by Governor Pierluisi.

“All my colleagues know me, so we have worked on other occasions. They know what my vision is. They know that I am very aggressive with the time lines, they know that I go to the street to the ‘field’… Here it is continuity and, like everything, there are things that we can project, that if it is not as we project it, attack quickly with a corrective action plan”, explained Raíces Vega, when revealing what his way of working will be like.

2023-07-11 21:23:07


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