Think New Mexico always lobbies for bills that, if enacted into law, would help most New Mexicans. Usually the non-partisan think tank represents that portion of the population that gets ignored.
In the 2022 session there were two such bills that had they passed would have improved education. In one case it would be direct and almost immediate. Think lost the legislative battle on financial literacy but accomplished a work-around with the Public Education Department for the win.
Another bill tried to address the wildly out-of-balance spending on school districts’ administration versus classrooms. If it had passed we could perhaps in a few years see a difference.
Senate Bill 177 would make a one-semester class on financial literacy mandatory for all high school students. Once upon a time, right after dinosaurs roamed the earth, a home economics class was offered. The name says it all.
It’s difficult running a house with family members having different needs. It falls to a parent to figure out how to buy groceries, pay the rent and utilities, meet school needs and still put gas in the car so everyone can get around. A family budget goes a long way to manage family needs and priorities.
Sadly, a large majority of students graduate high school totally inefficient in basic math. No one can expect a person with bad math skills, and probably a loathing of math, to sit down and establish a budget, then abide by it.
Home economics took up that slack. Classes went to the grocery store and shopped for ingredients for a dinner. Students had to convert ounces and pounds, look at nutritional value, stay within a budget. They “couponed.” Then it was back to the kitchen to execute.
In another life we were a first sergeant for a weather station detachment. When someone in the unit bounced a check, it fell to the first sergeant to review the offender’s finances. It was amazing how many people thought buying eggs, milk and bread at 7-11 was a good idea. We explained financing a truck they couldn’t afford at an interest rate in the mid-teens for five years was a terrible idea. That’s financial illiteracy.
No one is teaching high school students how to live alone. It’s no wonder most of them fail, are evicted, vehicles repossessed and find themselves broke. A financial literacy course would address this problem immediately. The Department added financial literacy standards and Think hopes it will make a strong foundation to get the bill passed in 2023.
Think has also been on the forefront for almost a decade fighting to get more money into classrooms. School district budget’s grow almost every year. Unfortunately, every time it does, school boards and administrations funnel more money into administration.
We firmly believe administrations are where New Mexico’s education issues lie. House Bill 212 passed the legislature in 2003. It took away hiring and firing power from school boards, more specifically, politicians who owed a lot of favors to voters. On the surface it was a good move. The boards could only hire and fire the superintendent. That person hired all other personnel.
Sure boards could lean on their only hire, and they do routinely. Española School District is rife with political Board hires. The idea behind the change was that superintendents were smarter, better educated, better informed to hire the huge farm of bureaucrats that operate the districts.
What we’ve learned is that superintendents are human too. They do just as poorly at hiring as uneducated politicians. They repay favors in hiring unqualified people. They bring friends from their previous position and protect them as they perform miserably.
While those watching the imploding education system and parents are tired of the waste and abuse, teachers are way beyond that. They have to work for these inept principals and associate superintendents (and whatever title they dream up).
We’ve sat in many meetings where school board members try to get a principal or superintendent to say publicly that a teacher quit over poor pay and the administrator dances around what they can’t say publicly: most teachers quit because they are tired of working for unqualified people who not only won’t enforce rules, but make teachers cook attendance records and grades. We’ve seen the emails.
Paying teachers more money will never improve the education New Mexico children receive. To improve education, superintendents must hire qualified leaders and supporting staff at each school campus. And that pay does not need to be boosted for the jobs with which they are tasked.