A critical look at Deb Haaland’s education plans

Good news, Deb Haaland’s campaign (she’s the frontrunner for the Democratic Party’s nomination for Gov.) has put some actual public policy ideas out on her website. While we’ve done writeups on the other Democrats running (search for Bregman and Miyagishima) in the search box this is the first we’ve seen from the Haaland campaign. The Albuquerque Journal provided a writeup of Haaland’s education plans so we’ll concentrate on them here.

First and foremost, the fact that Haaland received the endorsement of the Albuquerque Teachers Federation should be a strike (arguably a disqualifying strike) against Haaland. The unions have played a uniquely harmful role in education policy. Anyone that supports their interests does so at the expense of our children. With that in mind, let’s consider Haaland’s policy plans:

• Teach kids to read earlier by detecting literacy problems sooner, bolstering universal childcare, boosting reading and bilingual instruction, and expanding summer reading programs and after-school programming: Our take: There are very few specifics with regard to effective learning outcomes. Her plan is to spend more money without changing anything of significance. 
• Expand career pathways starting in middle school through high school and provide hands-on career experience: Our take: this is fine, but NM already has a lot of career pathways. Also, nothing here is truly focused on improving outcomes.
• Create an Every Child Outdoor Initiative that incorporates outdoor learning into K-12 curriculums: Our take: There’s nothing wrong with outdoor learning, but will it improve student outcomes?
• Expand statewide Community School Models that provide wrap-around services like counseling, school based health care, dental, family support, and community engagement: Our take: Further turning schools into welfare providers does nothing to improve student outcomes, duplicates existing programs, and diverts attention from student outcomes.
• Direct uncommitted funds from the Public School Capital Outlay Fund to improve schools:  Our take: With plummeting student numbers APS and other districts should rightsize the number of facilities and use the savings to update and improve buildings.
• Expand the Opportunity Scholarship to provide free tuition for New Mexicans, including for graduate education: Our take: There’s no data on the impact of the Opportunity Scholarship which has cost taxpayers $1 billion. Shouldn’t we have better data on the existing program before we expand it? 
• Offer more opportunities for students to earn college credit in high school. Our take: This is fine, but hardly a game-changer.

Summary: Haaland’s policy prescriptions are both “big government/big spending” and more of the same. If New Mexico were a low-spending state on education with even mediocre results these ideas might be worthwhile. But we’re not. New Mexico is dead-last in K-12 outcomes and middle-of-the-pack in spending. No wonder the unions like her plan which amounts to weak tea.