John Dendahl’s Misstep

When you are running for governor against a powerful incumbent and you lack the financial resources to put your message out in a massive media blitz, the last thing you should be doing is unnecessarily attacking large voting blocks. Unfortunately, that is exactly what Republican gubernatorial nominee John Dendahl did recently in attacking teachers themselves for New Mexico’s abysmal education results.
Rather than attacking teachers themselves, Dendahl should have used the lousy results as an opportunity to speak out about a failing monopolitic model of education that discourges innovation and initiative while encouraging mediocrity. After all, in a free market system, parents would have the ability to choose whether sex-ed is tought in their children’s school or whether the focus is placed on the basics like reading, writing and arithmetic.
Governor Richardson does indeed deserve some blame for our failing schools, but he is only one of many governors in the nation — Republican or Democrat — that presides over a failing monopoly.