Part of a $21 million budget assigned to transform the Ponce educational region into the Department of Education’s (DE) first Local Educational Agency (LEA) could be invested in hiring 20 employees to decentralize the agency. After the announcement of the first LEA, it was announced that the Consulting Integrated Transformation and Advancement company, presided over by the former secretary of the Department of the Family, Carmen González Magaz, is also part of the initiative. The DE has not disclosed the contract amount, nor did the former secretary answer questions about it despite the announcement during a media roundtable.
The human resources company registered in January 2023 by the former platform director of Pedro Pierluisi’s failed re-election campaign has landed $125,000 in contracts with DE since March 2023.
A Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI) source also highlighted connections to the New Progressive Party (PNP) within the Ponce educational region. For example, interim Superintendent Andrés Ausúa Pagán was a PNP candidate for mayor of Peñuelas in 2004 and a member of the municipal legislative assembly in 2008.
The first LEA announcement follows a Senate-approved regulation that keeps procurement, budget allocations, and superintendent appointments under the DE Secretary’s control. This came after U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona advocated for establishing the first LEA, resulting in a last-minute approval of a document that did not address necessary structural changes for autonomy and reducing bureaucracy.
In a letter sent in June, Cardona reminded DE Secretary Yanira Raíces Vega that steps must be taken to decentralize the “single system that has historically limited local communities’ access to decision-making about the best use of educational funds to serve their students effectively.”
The by-laws determining the powers and duties of the Regional Educational Offices (ORE, in Spanish) constitutes a proposal that “serves as an initial foundation for the subsequent development of more detailed and specific regulations,” according to the document. The regulation was approved with 20 votes in favor, four against, and one abstention.

Photo by Nahira Montcourt | Centro de Periodismo Investigativo
Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) senator María de Lourdes Santiago Negrón, a member of the Senate Commission on Education, Culture, and Tourism, saw the pressure from the U.S. Department of Education as suspicious.
“To the extent that the LEA structure is imposed, the Department of Education as we know it disappears. In addition, you guarantee spots to the PNP in key decision-making positions and deinstitutionalize the Department,” Santiago Negrón said.
Job Announcements for Decentralization Spur Lawsuit
The latest report on the Initiative for Educational Decentralization and Regional Autonomy (IDEAR, in Spanish) states that creating 724 new positions is required for its implementation. DE press spokesperson Jorge Salcedo said the new positions respond to the need to strengthen regional capacities to “improve autonomy and response time in the service to schools.” Over the next two years, “legal processes and procurement capacity will be strengthened so that the entire island benefits from decentralization,” Salcedo added.
A lawsuit filed by six school principals alleges irregularities during the recruitment processes for IDEAR. Plaintiffs José Luis Jiménez Negrón, Pablo D. Ortiz Feliciano, Nitza M. Sánchez Cartagena, Rubén Díaz Flores, Jessica Ortega Irizarry and Ramón Burgos Rosado claim that “the only common element of all the plaintiffs who the Department rejected is that they were [not] affiliated with the New Progressive Party or were sympathizers of a sector of the New Progressive Party different from that of Secretary Raíces and the Governor of Puerto Rico.”
Sánchez Cartagena told the CPI that the Department of Education took two weeks to inform her that she would not be recommended for the position after her interview with the evaluation committee. She said no explanation was given. Meanwhile, Ortiz Feliciano said he was interviewed in the Caguas and Bayamón region, and they never showed him his evaluation. The director of Eugenio María de Hostos Second Unit School in Cayey alleges discrimination due to his candidacy for mayor of Barranquitas for the Popular Democratic Party (PPD).
The plaintiffs also stated that Act 85 of 2018 provides that new appointments for assistant school superintendents will be for one year, but the DE called for permanent positions. Furthermore, a DE circular letter establishing the recruitment and selection procedure for IDEAR program staff awards more points for being a Special Teaching Assistant than for academic preparation or experience. They also said they were eliminated from the Registry of Eligible Candidates after being rejected for the position, which precludes them from competing for these positions later.
Power at the Central Level Remains Untouched
The Senate-approved by-laws delegate some duties and processes to Regional Educational Offices, but detailed definitions and roles are left to the DE Secretary. The Secretary will continue establishing public policy and regulations guiding regional offices’ actions.
Eileen Segarra Alméstica, director of the Public Education Observatory, believes “this process [of decentralization] must lead to depoliticization and effective governance.” The academic professional noted a fundamental aspect of decentralization: participatory governance, which is not included in the approved version of the regulations.
“There are two generic sections on citizen participation, but governance structures are not established. It is very important that this governance is stipulated in the regulations, as well as the Local Advisory Council (CAL, in Spanish), its powers and the authority it will have in decision-making processes, as well as access to information. As they are written right now, the regulations provide nothing to guarantee participatory governance,” Segarra said.
Likewise, the secretary on duty will establish the requirements for the regional superintendent position and the procedure for its selection. The document does not prioritize merit-based staff selection or involve school councils or CALs.
Segarra believes “you need to evaluate the merits that the person must have and that these governance bodies, the CAL and the councils, also influence what those merits will be. Another issue is that student councils are needed in schools, so they have a voice and be part of that participatory governance, and it isn’t mentioned anywhere [in the regulations].”
Possibility of More School Closings Remain
The new regulation opens the door to more school closings, as the final decision remains in the hands of the DE secretary. It establishes that “the OREs can make recommendations at the central level regarding these decisions, based on the specific trends and behaviors of their region.”
These recommendations must be coupled with a report that includes the enrollment of the schools that are projected to close, academic achievement indicators, a description of their structural conditions, employee numbers, operational costs, cost-benefit evaluation, and savings that would result from the closures, proposed or potential uses for the structures, as well as a certification that the receiving schools have the capacity to absorb the displaced students.
The regulation states that the Secretary of Education must establish criteria to ensure the permanence of schools in isolated communities.
“This process will involve defining criteria and procedures that allow differentiated management of these schools, considering their unique context,” the regulation says, but these criteria are not detailed in the document that the Senate approved on the last day of the four-year term’s last ordinary session.
“When they talk about opening schools, when I read it as it is [in the regulations], it’s a roadmap for closing schools, leaving the community out of that process, and keeping the decision at the central level. It’s another significant flaw. This decision must include all the governance entities of the school communities, so that their decisions are taken via consensus,” Segarra said.
“We were very emphatic with Cardona that we would remain on the executive committee [of IDEAR] as long as the project presents three principles: the non-privatization of public schools, our opposition to school closings and that the rights acquired through collective bargaining are respected,” said Teachers Association President, Víctor Bonilla.
The founder of the Nueva Escuela Institute, which brings together public Montessori schools, and who is also part of IDEAR’s executive committee, Ana María García, agreed with Bonilla and Segarra. “It’s very troubling that the regulations practically create a protocol for the closure of schools and that the Senate approved it without careful discussion or evaluation,” she said.
At a public hearing held last year in the Senate, the assistant secretary for legal affairs of the DE said that 638 public schools were closed in Puerto Rico between 2012 and 2021. Meanwhile, enrollment for the 2023-2024 academic year was 247,298 students, a reduction of 3,369 students compared to the year before, the education secretary said at her confirmation hearing in September 2023.
Delegating Purchases and Budgeting is Still a Promise
Cardona, who is of Puerto Rican descent, said with decentralization, systems are being created so that the budget is in the hands of the school communities.
“I want to see local decisions, that when a school needs something, they can order it without waiting a long time, that teachers don’t have to pay out of pocket to have things for their students,” said Cardona back in June from the headquarters of the Hispanic Federation in Santurce a San Juan neighborhood.
However, the approved regulation leaves control of the agency’s budget at the central level since it states that the regional offices can directly carry out certain purchases that do not require a bidding process or a contract, but others will require approvals from the central level.
“These approvals or purchases made at the central level may be gradually delegated to the OREs, if the Secretary decides,” the 21-page regulation states.
Regional offices will receive federal funds but will be distributed from the central level. Meanwhile, they will manage state funds following the guidelines established by the Secretary and according to a per-student formula, which has never been confirmed how it was established, and that will be “reviewed annually with the advice of a committee of experts and school representatives.” The document does not say either who will be on that committee.
Sen. Santiago said, “The by-laws evade important elements such as the issue of financing per student, the criteria for designating a region as a LEA, it doesn’t specify any criteria for decentralization, and appointments will continue [to be made] at the central level. The issue of purchases is not addressed, and community participation is basically consultative.”
Following the partisan political intervention in the DE’s decentralization, at least nine people who were part of the committees implementing the IDEAR project resigned in April. They denounced the committees’ politicization and said the process lacked transparency and participation, especially after the arrival of Secretary Raíces.
Cardona evaded answering if or how the U.S. Department of Education addresses the concerns that the resigning group revealed two months ago.
Reaction from IDEAR Director
Following the publication by CPI, IDEAR’s Executive Director, Roger Iglesias, Jr., requested clarification and to add information to the story.
For example, he stated that he was unaware of Interim Superintendent Andrés Ausúa Pagán’s connections with the PNP and noted that a new permanent superintendent would be chosen by the school community between August and September. He said that IDEAR’s Governance Committee members must develop a manual or guide for this procedure during this period.
Additionally, Iglesias clarified that the approved regulation for the Regional Educational Offices was a requirement of Act 85 that had to be met. However, since these offices will be replaced by Local Educational Agencies (LEA) in three to four years, manuals and guides for their operation and functions will need to be developed. The LEAs will be delegated the management of budgets, appointments, and purchases through these guides. The development of these manuals will also be the responsibility of IDEAR’s Governance Committee.
Regarding the lawsuit filed by school directors over irregularities in the recruitment and selection process for assistant superintendents, he said, “As a lawyer, I assure you that their argument will fall apart because the calls for assistant superintendents have nothing to do with IDEAR.”
Iglesias added that the latest public report on decentralization estimated that over 700 positions needed to be created, but after consultations with the Fiscal Control Board, the estimate was reduced to 321 new positions, which will be updated in IDEAR’s next report. He also mentioned that the local budget of $21 million has not yet been used for the twenty hires needed for the transition of the Ponce regional office.
“The closure of more schools cannot be ruled out,” Iglesias concluded, referring to the part of the regulation that mentions this issue, citing the decline in the student population. He mentioned that this aspect was added to the regulation at the request of the Teachers Association and the Legislature.
The contract with Consulting Integrated, headed by González Magaz, was signed with the Office of Management and Budget (OGP). Although Iglesias committed to providing the contract to CPI, he did not do so. A subsequent search in the Comptroller’s contract database shows that the contract with OGP was signed on June 24 for $2,700,000. Payment for the six-month contract comes from federal funds granted during the pandemic.