Taos: School for Scandal

Statewide print and broadcast reports say New Mexico public schools have surprised Gov. Martinez and Secretary of Education Skandera with a surge of “funding units,” thereby busting the budget. Funding units are also known as students for which the local school districts are reimbursed. The average student is worth, reportedly, this year about $3500.00, down from $3900.00 last year. A “special needs” or “bilingual” student may generate reimbursements of two to five times the amount of $3500.00.

As Senate Finance Committee Chair John Arthur Smith (D-Demming) has said, according to the Albuquerque Journal, “If there is gaming of the system it’s been in the special education and bilingual education.”

So there’s a budget crisis, due to manipulating the figures statewide, based on student units. In addition, teacher salaries have risen, due to promotions from level I to level II or level III, as instructors provide evidence of further study, endorsements, and self-developed dossiers. Call it self-monitoring or rubber-stamping.

As has been reported at TMS, where enrollment is in decline, a majority of Hispanic students fail to graduate, based on four-year cohorts, and perform miserably on standardized tests. Yet, administrative salaries continue to rise. Retired administrators and teachers are re-hired, regardless of credentials, so they can double-dip and continue in their roles as agents of failure. The schools have been spiraling downward for a decade or more.

The teachers’ union, at TMS, like the Albuquerque Public Schools union, negotiated a contract wherein teachers only spend 6.5 hours a day in contact with students (Maybe that’s a good thing: more contact with the public schools might mean greater rates of failure.) More pay, less work. In the rest of the state, teachers work more than seven hours per day.

We don’t deny that there are good teachers at TMS but the exception proves the rule.

Even as the students are neglected, the taxpayers are being taken for a ride. In Taos former school board members like Arsenio Cordova and Lorraine Coca-Ruiz, focused on administrative lapses and questioned the numbers. They called in the auditors, who confirmed that something funny was going on. These messengers were universally attacked for attempting to find the cause of failure. Now the state of New Mexico agrees: something funny is going on. Apparently, the PED will be doing more “audits.”

In the past, the “Special Ed” folks at TMS have said anywhere from 700 to 800 students or about 30% of the student population locally is labeled as “challenged.” According to parent groups, the kids with genuine mental and physical disabilities rarely get the services to which they are entitled by civil rights laws. But, as more and more students fail to learn to read or do arithmetic, they can be justifiably labeled “Special Ed.” Then TMS can expect an increase in revenue from the state.

It’s a vicious cycle.

In Taos, the shouters and sensationalists, supported by the mainstream media, have blamed the messengers for calling attention to administrative and instructional failures. Instead failed administrators and teachers are rewarded with praise, higher salaries, and promotions. Long before Gov. Martinez, Secretary Skandera, John Arthur Smith, or the Albuquerque Journal reported on those who “game” the system, the silent majority of Taosenos has known about the rotten apples at TMS and Crab Hall.

But “Vengeance is mine,” say the Fat Cats. Goodbye Arsenio and Lorraine. Only the kids and parents suffer at TMS. We say, “Vote with your feet: find a GED program or a charter school, a tutor or a friend. The mind you save may belong to your child.” Taos Friction acknowledges the saints who teach and the savvy genius of students who, thanks to a peculiar talent, survive and thrive despite the politics at TMS’s “School for Scandal.”

But that doesn’t make it right for the majority who are failing due to adult neglect.