The constant refrain among many is that funding has been slashed in education and that more money is all that is needed to turn the system around. As I write in response to a recent article this new opinion piece, reforms, not money, are the keys to educational success.
I recently posted some charts that also explain the funding situation here.
If you want to see how cost-effective educational success CAN be in New Mexico, check out this listing of private school tuition rates.
Reforms needed:
NO social promotion. If say, third grade English is not passed, then repeat third grade English, but not the whole third grade program.
Raise the standards for NM college admission and do NOT offer remedial programs. Let the deficient students attend summer school or go to a junior college.
What about people who don’t want to send their kids to a private school that pushes a religion on them?
The cheapest *non-religious* private school is $8,800 a year. You think any poor family can afford that? That’s nearly *half* the median per capita income in our state.
What about the poor people in this state (in case you hadn’t noticed we have a lot of them). Do you really think cutting education could save them thousands of dollars a year in taxes? No!
What about rural kids in areas too sparse to support a private school? They just get to grow up ignorant and ignored?
This is just another ruse to make the poor and middle class spend more on their daily lives so the rich can save on their taxes.