I read this article (just catching up with my Journal reading) with amusement and frustration. Some so-called “Hispanic leaders” are upset at Education Secretary Hanna Skandera over the achievement gap between Hispanics and whites and for other perceived slights.
I don’t know about the personal interaction Skandera has had with these people, but I can say unequivocally that it is not Hanna Skandera that is causing poor performance among Hispanics.
First and foremost, you have to look at the parents and students themselves. They must be the first point of emphasis in any discussion of educational performance.
Of course, it is easy to blame the parents. We can’t do much to change them, but we can change policies and reform the schools themselves. And, who is it that makes education policy in this State? Hint, it is not Skandera, it’s the Legislature which happens to be controlled by Hispanics. These very same people (like Ben Lujan who I ripped here) have been doing everything possible to stop Skandera’s (and Gov. Martinez’s) reforms.
Here’s my proposal to critics of the Martinez Administration’s education reforms: adopt them. If they fail, then by all means criticize. But, if you don’t like the way New Mexico’s education system is performing, meet with your legislators, complain about them in the media when they vote incorrectly (or fail to bring reform legislation to a vote). Hispanics are not some powerless minority in this state. They run the state and have done so for years. If Hispanic kids aren’t learning in school, they have no one to blame but themselves.
Excellent points. Much easier for people with no ideas to just complain for political points.
There’s an opportunity to leverage New Mexico’s strong Hispanic culture to develop community-based solutions for the achievement gap. Hispanic-interest organizations and churches could help motivate parents to take an interest in their kids’ educations, or test new models of bilingual education in charter schools. But I guess that’s a lower priority than preserving drivers’ licenses for illegal immigrants.
Isn’t the current Governor Hispanic? Wasn’t the last Governor touted to be Hispanic? If he could not correct the problem in 8 years, what was going on? The same thing that is going on now. The legislature just hasn’t thrown enough money at the problem. They, the legislature, needs to look in the mirror and take an honest, (opps what is that?) assessment of themselves and open their brains. They should try something different suggested by someone else, or they should come up with a viable program of their own. Quit carrying the water for the teachers unions! Isn’t carrying the water something the legislator/teachers blame on the loyal opposition??
The liberals in the legislature cannot afford to really educate their dumbed-down voter base. If the base were to become educated, they wouldn’t need the corrupt political patrons that infest the legislature.
This problem has persisted for decades and it is clearly the liberally slanted agenda of our legislator to dumb-down education. Since our state has such a high percentage of hispanics it is only natural that they are the most affected. Keep the students ignorant and promise them crumbs and they will believe and give up their vote relenqunching their right to a proper education. Hispanic history is not taught to inspire and motivate (see http://www.hispaniccontributions.org/pManager_E.asp?pid=home_Ee🙂 did anyone know that the first Admiral in the U.S. Navy was a hispanic? Admiral David Farragut son of Jorge Farrugut born in Minorca , Spain holds that honor and the famous quote “Damn the torpedos, Full speed ahead”. When i approached the former secertary of education as to why hispanic history was not taught in our schools, her curt response was that she could not require any course of instruction unless it was madated by the legislature. I am a hispanic retired 30 year Navy Veteran, ordained Evnagelical Pastor and a graduate of the New Meixco School for the Deaf class of 1955 and I am ashamed of the hispanic liberal
controll leadership in our legislature
The “Hispanic education gap” is a conglomeration of individual statistics. The conglomeration serves no educational purpose and has no educational use.
Education is failing because individual needs are ignored in a model that depends upon thirty kids with nothing in common but the year of their birth, and forming them into a thought choir, learning in unison for twelve years. The factory model is obsolete in a modern world.
About the only thing it really has working for it, it justifies an entire industry based on the standardized testing of individual performance.
If Hispanics, or any other ethnic group, including whites, want children to succeed in school, the need to dedicate their efforts to seeing that schools address student’s needs and stop beating the dead horse that is cemetery seating based learning.
Ched, I totally agree with you!