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Senate commission presses Education Department on Carrera Magisterial payments, platform problems and funding
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Summary
Senate commissioners questioned Department of Education officials about delayed retroactive payments, an estimated $26 million liability, a request for about $1.2 million in prospective funds, and persistent platform and process problems that teachers say have caused submitted documents to 'disappear.'
SAN JUAN — Puerto Rico’s Senate Commission on Education, Tourism and Culture convened Feb. 26 to review the status of the Carrera Magisterial program and the Department of Education’s steps to resolve outstanding teacher payments and claims.
The commission opened by citing Senate Resolution No. 114, which orders a continuing investigation into the department’s operations with special emphasis on school infrastructure, administrative matters and Carrera Magisterial. Department officials at the hearing included Secretary Yanira Raíces Vega and staff from the Office of Carrera Magisterial and human resources.
In a prepared presentation, Jimi Cavant Rodríguez, who identified himself as secretario auxiliar de recursos humanos and a former director of the office of Carrera Magisterial, summarized payments made since the law’s approval. He read a fiscal‑year breakdown and said the department’s table shows roughly $14.1 million disbursed since 2022. The presentation said 2,771 reactivations were approved and that those reactivations have benefited about 7,269 teachers.
Cavant Rodríguez told the commission the department has requested roughly $1.2 million in prospective funds to cover payments tied to teachers from 2014 and 2015 — work that would affect about 2,600 teachers — and that the agency has a preliminary estimate of about $26 million in retroactive liability for earlier years. "Como indica la ley nueve... tenemos hasta el treinta de junio para atenderlo," he said, attributing the schedule and the need for interagency approvals to Law 9 of 2022 and the department’s coordination with OGP/AFAP.
Department officials described a phased operational approach that began Feb. 1. They said the first sub‑group of highest‑priority cases was attended to in full; the overall phased effort is roughly 61% complete. Cavant Rodríguez provided program counts: 1,202 teachers started but did not complete submissions on the platform, 3,380 teachers completed the submission process and moved to evaluation, and about 1,612 teachers tied to earlier phases have already received adjustments. He said 92–93 cases must be validated with the Retirement Office before final adjudication.
Commissioners pressed the department on staffing and process details. Cavant Rodríguez said the central office currently has three people directly assigned to the task and that regional staff and designated facilitators are carrying much of the workload. He described how regions convene facilitators to review plans in person, produce signed minutes and submit scanned packets to the central office for validation. The department also said it is pursuing digitalization of teacher records and platform improvements to reduce manual steps.
Sen. Rafael Bernabé and others raised repeated complaints from teachers that documents uploaded to the platform later "disappeared," that directors had not completed required steps, and that some teachers remained "in limbo." Cavant Rodríguez said the department ran technical validations — checking storage, file‑size limits and cloud space — and did not find evidence of systemic deletion, but he acknowledged there have been capacity and migration issues and agreed to review and validate individual cases. "Si usted me da el caso, lo reviso," he said.
The department also addressed concerns about evaluation timing and eligibility. Commissioners warned against conditioning the legal right to benefits on available budget and sought clarity about what "completed the process" means; the department clarified that being cited and attended to in a regional appointment signals completion of that phase, but that further adjudication and budget approvals remain necessary before payments are issued.
As next steps, department officials said they will meet this week with OGP/AFAP to finalize budget approvals; Cavant Rodríguez indicated that if fiscal authorities approve, prospective payments could be distributed promptly. The commission scheduled a follow‑up hearing for March 21 at 10:30 a.m. (or March 20 if scheduling requires) to receive updated status on payments, validations and staffing. The commission adjourned at 11:59 a.m.
What remains unresolved are the final approvals from fiscal authorities for the large retroactive liability, the full resolution of teacher complaints about missing uploads on the platform, and a clear, published timetable showing when individual teachers can expect payments. The department committed to provide written follow‑up on the cases requested by the commission and to transmit the requested lists of trust employees with salaries under confidentiality safeguards.
