A teacher sent this commentary about the disgraceful neglect of public education in Néw Mexico:

“I cannot understand why our governor, Susanna Martinez, was re-elected…. Certainly, her education policies have been disastrous. This administration has no respect for teachers and no understanding of education and other related issues.

“We’ve been treated to a great number of photo ops in which the governor drops in to a school and poses with a book in her hand in front of a group of children and then drops out again. I’m not aware that she has ever made any effort to understand the issues the schools in the various parts of New Mexico face. In fact, she and her Secretary of Education, Hannah Skandera, seem to be quite uninterested in anything teachers might have to say. After four years in office, Ms. Skandera, was finally pushed through and confirmed as secretary of education, even though she has no background in education. The state constitution requires that candidates for this position have a degree in education and experience as a teacher and administrator. The legislative members who voted to confirm her willfully ignored our own constitution when they confirmed her. Ms. Skandera was a protégé of Jeb Bush and is bent on implementing failed Florida policies.
Even though the state is supposedly spending more money than ever on education, our schools are seeing less and less of it. Apparently, a lot of money is going to “below the line” funding that the governor uses as a slush fund to promote such things as teacher merit pay. In the last nine+ years, teachers have averaged less than a half percent annual raise. Future raises look doubtful as long as this governor is in office.

“This team implemented by “rule” (they could not get it through the legislature) Skandera’s teacher evaluation system, in which a minimum of fifty percent of the evaluation is based on student standardized test scores. The testing this year will provide the third year of data. Will teachers begin to lose their jobs because of test scores? I am the testing coordinator in my school and after the first round of testing, personally witnessed students who mechanically pushed keys on the computer and did not bother to even read the questions this past spring. The computers in my school library were used for testing. It was closed from mid-March until the last day of school to accommodate PARCC, end of year tests and EOC’s.

“It’s no surprise that the largest district in the state started school with three hundred teacher vacancies.
I blame the people of this state for re-electing these people. Granted, the candidate who ran against Ms. Martinez could not compete against all the out of state money that flowed in to her re-election coffers. However, if people had examined the candidates and their policy platforms, perhaps the outcome would have been different. I think the most discouraging statement I heard after the election was that the governor’s opponent wasn’t “charismatic” enough. Until the people of this state (and this nation) wise up and cast their vote based on the candidate’s policy instead of their personality, we will not end up with the government that is the best for common people.”

In case you read the original post, I deleted the second sentence because it had a grammatical error.