The willingness of some in New Mexico to make excuses for why they oppose change and accountability requires mental flexibility and contortions that resemble the acrobats in the upcoming Cirque du Soleil productions (soon to hit Rio Rancho). Take for instance Michael Corwin, a flack for the Democratic Party, and his recent op-ed in the Albuquerque Journal.
He claims that Gov. Martinez and her reading accountability measures “sold out parents” by taking decisions out of their hands. That’s rich coming from a supporter of politicians that have done everything in their power to halt school choice in this state. Anyway, Corwin claims that if only Gov. Martinez had been willing to give parents the final say over whether a child moves on or not, then every thing would have been great and HB 69 would have passed.
Well, I’d certainly prefer to give parents more choices, but should parents be able to demand their 10 year old be put in 8th grade if that’s where they want him (Corwin and opponents of HB 69 seem to think this is fine)? If a non-reading 5th grader becomes a disruption to her classmates (in part because their parent(s) put her there, can the school do anything about it (Corwin and opponents of HB 69 seem to say no).
It would be great if our schools could offer true parental choice and be tailor made to student needs, but Mimi Stewart, Michael Corwin, et al don’t want this. They want parents to be able to micromanage their child’s education — undermining the authority of teachers and principles — without actually giving them a real choice over where they can send their kids to school.
Democrats need dumb kids to “graduate” without any education behind their phony diplomas so they will turn into good little liberals who vote Democrat every election to return the slave-master Democrat pols to power.
That is why NM is, and has been a Banana Republic since before it became a state.
And as long as Democrats run and ruin this “state”, it will remain so.
Careful! We must remember that the political machine that ran New Mexico during territorial days and on up to FDR was a REPUBLICAN machine. Just goes to show again that we can’t trust any politicians, other than day-by-day!!
Don, I agree. The state of New Mexico is a farm system for producing stupid and ignorant little liberals.
There is nothing worse than an ignorant, prejudiced liberal or conservative. Then their politics becomes religion, like many who leave messages here.
Im not sure what the definition of learning to read is (Dick and Jane or Tolstoy) but it is absurd to be overly permissive as a society with children (regarding reading) when we are so much less so with them when they become adults and are on their own and they are unable to find a job or end up with substance abuse problems or are incarcerated and are a bigger burden to society than they were as illiterate kids. Make the schools boot camps if thats what it takes to educate our children.
Bill Maher put it best the other night. When he was in school, the air between the teachers and the parents was almost zero. Not his exact quote, but his point is the parents trusted the teachers evaluations and the teachers respected the parents concerns. That trust and respect does not exist today. Reestablishing that trust and respect will go a long way to improving our schools. What takes place in schools with respect to education is an equal responsibility between the parents and the education system. Parents must be involved in the school system and stop using the schools as baby sitters when they are at work.