Poll: New Mexicans overwhelmingly support school choice (naturally the unions are opposed)

On one hand it is worth praising the Santa Fe New Mexicans‘ coverage of a recent national poll showing that overwhelming numbers of New Mexicans support school choice. Too often stories like this that run contrary to the left wing paradigm that dominates New Mexico are simply buried.

As the article rightly notes, there is broad support for school choice — “74% of GOP respondents, 61% of Democratic respondents and 69% of swing voter respondents supported the idea. Some 56% of people across political leanings who responded also supported the idea of state and local funding following students to the school of their choice.”

Of course, anytime a topic like school choice comes up, the unions are given the chance to defend their monopoly. This article was no different. Whitney Holland, union president of the American Federation of Teachers of New Mexico made a number of specious claims including that school choice “would lead to the defunding and closure of schools seen as less desirable.”

By “less desirable” she really means the worst performing schools in the worst performing state when it comes to education. Giving kids a ticket out of the worst performing schools in New Mexico is obviously popular with New Mexicans, but the unions care only about THEIR bottom lines. They want more members and more dues. Letting kids escape is bad for their business model.