When it came to education, it used to be that New Mexicans could “thank God for states like Louisiana and Nevada. Normally it was Mississippi and Alabama, but there were we were towards, but not always at the bottom of educational performance measures. Well, according to the US Department of Education, we are now at the very bottom in terms of graduation.
But other states that have traditionally struggled with educational outcomes are not standing still. They are providing real choices to parents and students. Earlier this year, Nevada enacted the most ambitious school choice program in the nation called Education Savings Accounts.
Louisiana too has traditionally struggled with educational outcomes, but under Gov. Bobby Jindal, the State created a statewide system of school vouchers. The Obama Administration sued Louisiana to allow the federal government to regulate the program, but yesterday the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against Obama Administration’s position.
It would be great if New Mexico’s Senate Democrats would stand up to their friends in the teachers’ unions and embrace school choice as a response to Gov. Martinez’s testing and common core-driven reforms. I’m not holding my breath.
We should throw common core out and go back to the basic three that every single human needs to know reading, writing and arithmetic. No reason these kids need to have PC’s to learn that stuff. They rely on it rather than figuring things out with their own brains. Cells should be put in a wall holder for each student and no cells either. Just use the brain God gave them