Recent reports are showing that New Mexico has a failing school system, ranked at the bottom of the nation and that parents and lawmakers are willingly destroying the future of New Mexico.
Last year a Kid’s Count report compiled by New Mexico Voices for Children showed that New Mexico has failed to educate it’s children to compete either nationwide or worldwide. The numbers prove that the lack of a meaningful education perpetuates poverty including homelessness and the single parent household with uncommitted parents.
The state ranks 5oth for the percentage of children who are not proficient in reading in fourth grade (79 percent), 49th for the percentage of children living in poverty (31 percent) and 48th for high school students not graduating on time (33 percent).
“When the 50th ranking came out, there was all sorts of chest-beating and hair-pulling, but no public official has come up with any kind of plan to address it. The governor didn’t even comment on it,” said Sharon Kayne, communications director for New Mexico Voices for Children, which is issuing the New Mexico Kids Count Data Book for online reading.
The Albuquerque Journal reported today reported that just over half of New Mexico high school students must take remedial classes in math and English before they can even attempt college level courses. The task of teaching what should have been taught in primary and secondary classes cost the state $22 million. Yet, every plan to improve education calls for increased spending.
New Mexico is allowing political ideology and social experimentation to interfere with the nuts and bolts of educating our children. We know what works. The United States has been the leader in education in the past, we have instead allowed our schools to be hijacked.
New Mexico Voices for Children and other groups are calling for more of an investment in early-childhood programs and progressive agenda items such as an increase in minimum wage and increasing funding for the Housing Trust Fund.
Rep. Nora Espinoza, R-Roswell, a member of the House Education Committee, said the state must address education at the elementary level and make sure students are mastering reading, writing and math. “This is why we’re having the problems that we are,” she said.
Governor Martinez’s office states that they are working hard to increase the amount of money the state spends on education, by more than doubling pre-K funding and targeting money on increasing early literacy and graduating more New Mexico students with the skills they need to succeed in our workforce or in college.
Gov. Martinez, also advocates mandatory retention of third-grade students who struggle to read and merit-based pay increases only for top-performing teachers.
Democrats’ solutions are of the usual sort, more money even though the spending per child is among the highest in the world with the least results possible.
Let’s face it. Lawmakers are impotent to effect any significant change to the state’s educational system. Why? They are looking to their own interests instead of the interests of the children. It is foolish, destructive and downright immoral to allow this catastrophic failure to continue even a day longer.
However, the governor and the legislature have buried their collective heads in the sand, refusing to recognize that they are destroying the state of New Mexico and condemning our children to a future of abject poverty.
What is the solution? It is not so difficult. Focus on the fundamentals; reading, writing, and arithmetic, science and true history without the political correctness. Draw parents into their children’s education by having real consequences when they fail to participate.
Did you know that New Mexico has a single parent rate that is among the highest in the nation? About a third of children in Santa Fe county live in single-parent households, compared to 35 percent nationwide and 36 percent in New Mexico.
We need to stop rewarding such immoral behavior, it is destructive. No one has the courage to stop the rewards for having children out of wedlock, but this is a huge factor in the education of our children. It seems counter intuitive, I know, but rewarding a woman with roughly $2,000 per child each year and providing food and such is a great incentive to have more children.
There are a host of problems causing the education problem in New Mexico. If we desire to turn this around we need a compound solution that does not require more spending and more government intervention. We need to empower families and discourage the single parent home and the immorality it breeds. We need to encourage and reward hard work, from teachers to students, focusing on the basics and losing the indoctrination of the progressive agenda.
But most of all, we need to put the children first. Christians especially need to be involved with the local school board, volunteer to help in the classroom and mentor kids to become citizens that give instead of take.
