The American Federation of Teachers and the National Educational Association have a long history of high-quality policy research and programs of cooperative labor relations that strive to address the complex issues facing public education at all levels. They and their academic allies work continuously for creative solutions.

The recent action of the governor in bringing in out-of-state educational "experts" is an insult to our educational leaders in New Mexico. Solving our problems by ignoring the teachers and their democratically elected union leaders is not only an ideological anti-union statement but questionable leadership. When teacher professionals and their leaders and allies are left out of the discussion as participating partners, the chances of change and problem-solving are questionable.

It is not to late to bring unions into the process. I hope it will happen.


Grade policies, too

Would the proponents of assigning grades to public schools also be willing to grade themselves and the rest of us on our care for the children and families of New Mexico? When it comes to that support, our state consistently ranks at the bottom of the class. Whether graded on hunger, homelessness, health care or other issues that affect children's performance in school, we get a "D" at best.

As the daughter of a science teacher who strove for excellence in herself and her students, I want top-notch schools. Educators, like ministers and other professionals, need to be held accountable for their work. But it is grossly unfair to "grade" schools without also holding ourselves and our elected leaders responsible for economic policies that result in hungry and homeless children, crowded classrooms and inadequate health care. Address those issues, and I guarantee our schools will make the grade.


Teachers as scapegoats

At the same time that the executive and legislative branches of state government propose to cut funding for public schools, they also propose to grade the performance of those same schools?

"It is accountability," they say. Yet neither branch proposes to grade its own performance. If they fund public education at the 60 percent level of what is needed, doesn't that amount to a D-? When I was in school it did.

"Yes," they say, "but it is the voters who grade elected officials."

That is where the political genius of the grading proposal comes to the surface. If they can keep the blame focused on teachers, the voters will not blame elected officials for their part in the problems in public education.

"But we don't have the money," they say.

"Is that the fault of the public education system?" I ask.

When we had money we spent it on rail systems and spaceports, not education. As long as we have a handy scapegoat, we won't focus on solving the problem.


Cuts won't heal

The U.S. House of Representatives passed and sent to the Senate last week the 2011 budget bill that would make devastating cuts to essential programs that provide healthy starts for babies and young children, readiness for school for low-income children and affordable health care for low-income families.

On this indiscriminate chopping block are: Head Start/Early Head Start, child care funding (supporting working parents), community health centers (like La Familia, El Centro), National Health Service Corps (providing health care to rural, underserved areas), and essential public health programs including WIC, Maternal/Child Health services, Teen Pregnancy Prevention and Family Planning programs.

The potential impact on Head Start nationwide: 218,000 Head Start children dropped; 55,000 jobs lost; 16,000 classrooms closed. These cuts are terribly shortsighted. A nation doesn't remain strong and healthy by depriving its children of basic health care and education — they are our future!


Don't stop at schools

Congratulations to the governor on her proposed initiative to help the public identify failing schools. However, why is she is focusing solely on the public shaming of educational institutions? It's high time we were able to do drive-by evaluations of sheriff's offices (corrupt auctions), hospitals (fatal MRSA infections), attorneys (malpractice suits) and utilities (gas outages).

In fact, why stop there? Dunce caps for everyone with low SAT scores, plus anyone who thinks the few elementary schools that actually made Annual Yearly Progress last year can absorb the children from the remainder.


Retain 80 percent?

I am all for education and deeply appreciate the need for our children to read. Gov. Susana Martínez claims that 80 percent of fourth-graders do not read proficiently. Will 80 percent be held back? A change is needed but it seems the solution is not the children but how they are taught.

Republican state Sen. Clinton Harden suggests that the threat of having a child held back will get parents more involved in reading to their children. Of course we'd like parents to read to their children, but aren't all these tactics missing the point and don't they sound punitive? Use the federal funds of Reading First and Title One for teacher support to teach, not to go backward. Why are 80 percent not reading at grade level? Why bring in a group from another state. What are the Florida benefits?


Hold back and punish

The governor's reading reform is simply a veiled unjust call to punish students. Her tactics on such an important issue will not solve any problem because the bills do not provide any resources. Improved reading is not going to happen by magic simply because these students are going to be held in third grade.

As the governor has shown, her discipline-and-punish mentality surfaces in her approach to deal with any issue. The fact that she designated Hanna Skandera as education secretary proves it. This person, along with her former employer, Jeb Bush, did not improve education in Florida. As a Mexican-American woman, I am embarrassed that such a person as Susana Martínez got elected in such a wonderful state as New Mexico. She must be stopped in her tracks.


Teachers wrong targets

Isn't it interesting that neither Gov. Susana Martínez nor U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is willing to point the finger where it needs to be pointed, at parents first because all else depends on their attitude toward education, then at bureaucrats and politicians, followed by colleges of education.

It is easy to pick on teachers. After all, they are only hired hands. The teachers unions deserve criticism. They only talk about money, never about discipline, or lack of parental concern and bureaucratic stifling of initiative. I will say Duncan is right to a point. Teachers will change education for the better, when they rebel against all the other nonsense I have pointed out.