Albuquerque Public Schools Doesn’t care about your kids

With the exception of Board member Peggy Mueller-Aragon, the Albuquerque Public School (APS) board is full of union-endorsed advocates. Concerns about what the unions think as opposed to what is best for our children is what caused the Board to keep students out of their classrooms for the duration of the 2020-2021 school year.

1. More APS students will fall behind after over a year of in-person schooling having been lost. Of course we won’t have great metrics to understand just how much they are losing anytime soon because the State will likely skip its big standardized test again this year;
2. The “real” question all along is what this decision means for this fall. Will APS and its very cautious teachers be willing to return to school this fall? Only time will tell, but it would seem that no matter what happens with COVID 19 the likelihood of 5 days a week in-person learning is slim;
3. The large group of parents who want their children educated in person face some difficult challenges. Obviously THIS school year was always going to be an issue, but the 2021-2022 school year and what it looks like is now in-doubt. There are private schools of course and in terms of charter schools, it would seem that if they are chartered by the State they may have more flexibility than those chartered by APS. A list of charter schools by chartering authority can be found here. 
4. For athletes in APS this decision has got to be devastating. To be led on for most of the school year and for the Gov. to dump the decision in the laps of districts and for the District to make this decision has got to be extremely frustrating and saddening for these young people.
5. Rio Rancho schools are moving forward with their reentry plans. Parents who want the best for their children have to be considering picking up and moving if they have the means to do so.