Two-and-a-half months ago, in a blog “Who Is Trying to Improve New Mexico's Public Education? Or What the Hell Is Bill Soules Doing for Public Education in New Mexico?,” I noted that, on the Senator’s watch (2013 to the present), public education has gotten worse, not better, in the state. Soules’s response: silence, a response reflecting his indifference to the education of students if steps to improve it would jeopardize his political attractiveness to teachers. He could have responded by defending his record; blaming others, circumstances, or conditions; even admitting his misjudgments and mistakes. But no: with the arrogance of ensured re-election, Soules thinks it unnecessary to explain this pathetic educational performance or his part in it to the electorate.
But Soules is not the only official whose stance on public education is irresponsible. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s position parallels his political calculus: teachers vote, students don’t, and parents offer praise to curry favor or keep a low profile. The Governor’s agenda is Soules’s: just throw money away on the teachers in the name of supporting public education. So what are the results in terms of reading and math proficiency in 4th and 8th grades? Take a look at the latest data on their watch:
The more the state spends on teachers, the less students get in education.
Embarrassing. Or it would be if New Mexican voters really cared. But lip service to public education and pious but pallid praise of those so very dedicated, hard-working teachers is the easy camouflage of indifference. So candidates for School Boards have little to say about the fundamental failure of public education to provide a minimum: the ability to read, if not also write. With a work force largely semi-literate and semi-numerate, New Mexico can look forward to a subsistence economy and a low quality of life for its citizens as far into the future as the eye can see.
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