The Albuquerque Journal – Winthrop Quigley
“The public has come to expect some ugly political rancor to accompany any discussion of the state’s education system. We are asked to believe the governor is a heartless political hack out to turn education over to the highest corporate bidder. We are told unionized teachers are so incompetent that their only goal is to avoid accountability and do as little teaching as possible. So it was gratifying and a little surprising to hear how much common ground is shared by the Democratic vice chairman and the Republican chairman of the state’s Legislative Education Study Committee. Sen. John Sapien, an insurance agent and a Democrat from Corrales, and Rep. Dennis Roch, a Republican who is superintendent of the Logan school district in Quay County, skipped lunch during LESC hearings Thursday in Santa Fe to do a joint interview with the Journal. They agree that teachers and school administrators need to be evaluated, that third-graders’ reading levels need to improve, that dropout rates are too high and graduation rates are too low, that rules governing charter schools need tweaking, and they agree on many of the implementation details that could improve schools.”(more)