Public Education in New Mexico - The Future Looks Bright!

Public Education in New Mexico is headed in a bright new direction and educators are celebrating. In order to understand the celebrations, one needs to be familiar with a brief background as to what brought us to these celebrations.

In 2010 New Mexico elected Susana Martinez as governor. She was part of the group of governors, who had been hired by the Koch brothers to carry out their agenda. One large part of the Koch agenda is to shut down public education and privatized so that profits can be made.

Martinez’ education platform was based on the Florida Model of public education. It included test scores tied to teachers’ evaluations, school grades and third-grade retention. Her goal was to get rid of all of the “bad” teachers and to shut down “poorly” performing schools. Finally, as a faithful Koch employee she tried very hard to make sure that New Mexico would become a Right to Work state. In order to make this all happen she appointed Hanna Skandera, a former educational policy person from Jeb Bush’s days as governor, to be New Mexico’s Secretary of Education. It took several years for the New Mexico Senate to confirm this appointment and she remained Secretary, Designate for a very long time.

Martinez vetoed a teacher evaluation bill that had been created by the American Federation of Teachers- New Mexico (AFT-NM) leaders and educators in the legislature. Instead of using this meaningful evaluation, she set in rule her own punitive evaluation to prove that the state was riddled with “bad” teachers. She included, as promised test scores tied to the evaluations and made sure VAM was a large part. She even was petty enough to ding teachers for using their sick leave. AFT NM and its largest local, The Albuquerque Teachers Federation (ATF) filed a lawsuit against the use of the VAM. The governor stalled the lawsuit. Fortunately, a judge filed an injunction stating that the VAM could no longer cause harm to teachers.

The unions fought off successfuly third-grade retention and worked hard at making sure that Right to Work did not pass. Sadly, the unions lost the battle of school grades and it became a law, which will soon cease to be a law. The Governor identified four “F” schools to be shut down. Three of the schools just happened to be in Albuquerque. Coincidently, the Board of Education and the superintendent of the Albuquerque Public Schools consistently went up against the governor's punitive policies. ATF had a successful campaign to make sure these schools were not shut down.

During the eight years of battling this two-term (gasp) governor, educators did not receive a raise for seven years. Finally, as a lame duck she bestowed 3% raises. This very dark time for public education saw teachers leaving the profession or retiring much earlier than planned. Colleges of education were not graduating an adequate number of teachers. A critical teacher shortage in New Mexico is underway.

AFT NM and ATF have been educating their members and stressing that teaching is entirely political, whether they were into politics or not. Educators now know that elections have consequences. AFT NM and ATF have tirelessly recruited and endorsed candidates who are pro-public education and anti-corporate reform for federal and state office, the legislature and school boards. The unions have been recruiting within their rank and file membership, knowing that it is powerful to have experts creating education laws and policies. AFT NM now has fourteen members in the New Mexico House and Senate and The National Education Association of New Mexico (NEA NM) has a member who is a Senator and a former member who is the newly elected State Land Commissioner. The Albuquerque Teachers Federation currently has four members who are classroom teachers serving in the House. Another ATF member now retired after 35 years in the classroom was elected to the Albuquerque Board of Education. Teachers are seeing that they do have power and they are ready to do the hard work of helping elected officials to fix the damage that New Mexico’s Koch-funded governor has left behind.

Fast forward to the election Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. As a member of the US Congress, Michelle Lujan Grisham had been listening to educators for years. She understood the problems and issues of public education. She was determined to stop the privatizing and move education forward to where it should be. She has a proven history of being courageous. Her opponent in the primary was a conservative businessman with no governing experience and little knowledge of public education. After going through the endorsement process, it was clear to AFT NM that the state had a champion of education. Lujan Grisham knew that New Mexico had to stop attacking educators and instead bring them to the table to help lead the way to a world class education. It was also clear to AFT NM that Howie Morales, a former class room teacher with a PhD in education, a union member and a State Senator was clearly the right candidate for Lt. Governor. The union knew that it was critical to do an early endorsement in order for educators to get to know these two candidates who could bring us out of the dark days of public education. After Lujan-Grisham and Morales won the Primary, work began in earnest to get them elected. Lujan-Grisham’s opponent was promising to crank up the policies that were in place.

Michelle Lujan Grisham has likened her plans for public education in New Mexico to John F. Kennedy's speech of " one day going to the moon." Michelle believes in dreaming big. She is calling for a “Moon Shot” in public education in New Mexico. On her third day in office, January 3, 2019, she issued an Executive Order for New Mexico to pull out of PARCC, to stop test scores being tied to evaluations and finally asking for educators to create a meaningful test for the students of NM. She believes that the educators in New Mexico are capable of doing this and she refuses to go outside the state to purchase a test from a private company. Teachers, including BATS were at the table as she signed the Order. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has in her first three days set a new positive tone.

This critical change happened when educators along with their union worked hard to get the right candidates elected into office. The Dark Ages are over in New Mexico and the Renaissance of public education is here and the state is ready. Together we will move forward.