Should New Mexico End Summer Break For Children?

February 9, 2017 by Leave a Comment

desert-rainbow

Apparently NM Senator Joseph Cervantes (D) was never a child. He must have miraculously appeared in adult form one day and skipped a human experience known as “childhood.” You may think I have finally lost my mind, but I beg you to read SB 256 and come to a different conclusion.

Senator Cervantes sponsored SB 256, which is designed to increase school days for New Mexico’s children. He isn’t just calling for another week of school…he wants the children to go to school for 27 more days! That is 5.5 more weeks of school.

SB 256 will increase the required number of hours per school year for kindergarten through fifth grades from 990 hours per year to 1127 hours per year. (It also removes half day kindergarten)

The bill also includes a minimum requirement of 205 days of instruction per year. Let’s put that in perspective. In school year 2016-17, the Albuquerque Public School calendar included 178 days of instruction. The school year began August 11, 2016 and ends May 25, 2017. By my calculation, the extra 27 days of school would make the last day of school in early July.

Wait…that’s not all. There is more fun to be had with this kid-friendly bill. Jolly Ol’ Senator Cervantes included the following restrictions:

“ Days or hours when no instruction is given due to lunchtime, recess, weather-related school delays or cancelations, in-service training, teacher planning and preparation or other events that are not educational programs…shall not count toward the calculation of minimum instructional hours or days.”

I know that schools have built-in school days for weather related cancelations. It just seems a little overboard to include this type of harsh language in this bill.

Lastly, the bill requires that, “School breaks shall be scheduled as evenly as practicable.” Really? How does propose that the schools do that with so few “off” days?

Obviously this is a “year-round” school proposal. I cannot stand the idea of any child, especially children in kindergarten through fifth grade, being required to be in school so much. I have a child and I want her to cherish fall, winter, spring and summer breaks as much as I did.

Hopefully I am wrong and Senator Cervantes was a child at some point. Maybe he will remember that your youth is only temporary and you never get it back. Let’s not take these moments away from our children just because we want them to be “competitive.” For the sake of the inner child in all of us, please do not let SB 256 pass.

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Veterans Don’t Matter? According to NM SB 103 & HB 108 they don’t

February 7, 2017 by Leave a Comment

voteno2

The New Mexico Legislature ignores Veterans again. Politicians love to use us during their campaign, but abandon us when we really need them. SB 103 & HB 108 are both silent on Veterans issues concerning the transfers of college credit gained from military experience. As a matter of fact, the proposed changes in the definitions of the Act may make it more difficult for Veterans to transfer credits.
SB 103 & HB 108 are identical bills that seek to amend the Post-Secondary Education Articulation Act. This Act is designed to create a unified method of transferring credits between New Mexico Institutions of Higher Education. Arguments exist for and against certain aspects of the bills, but both sides seem to miss the impact the measure will have on Veterans.
Currently, there is no unified system of determining how many credits a Veteran will be awarded for military training. According to the Legislative Education Study Committee (LESC) Bill Analysis for 2016 SB 153, military credit is transferred “solely at the discretion of the college or university.”
That may not seem like a big deal to most people, but for Veterans it is a headache. My wife & I can attest to that first hand. We are not new to college life as military Veterans.*

We have experienced the difficulties of transferring military credits between universities. Despite the fact that my wife had completed multiple years in the military and had an associate degree, UNM did not recognize all of her military education that was included in her Associate Degree. They only awarded her 3 credits for physical education. She had to take more credits to finish her BA than she should have needed. It was a waste of time and money, which could have been easily avoided.
Last year Senator Craig W. Brandt sponsored SB 153, which required the New Mexico Higher Education Department to “work in coordination with institutions of higher education to study, create and implement a policy and single articulation agreement regarding the award of academic college credit based on military training and experience.” Unfortunately, it was only a temporary provision that required HED to present a report to the Military and Veterans Affair Committee (MVAC) and the LESC on November 1, 2016.
The official minutes of the November 1, 2016 MVAC meeting are not available, but the November 16, 2016 LESC minutes are. At that meeting the HED Financial Aid Director, Dr. Harrison Rommel indicated that the department wants “military credits to apply towards a degree”, but as my wife and I both experienced, “the department has not seen that happen in the past.”
The changes to the Post-Secondary Education Articulation Act may make implementing a unified military credit policy more difficult. The bills both propose changing the definition of “articulation” from “the transfer of course credit from one institution to another” to “the transfer of courses that fulfill a graduation requirement for a student’s chosen degree program.”
HED admitted that they have not seen institutions apply military credits towards a degree. This means that even if one institution grants military credits there is no guarantee that another institution will accept them unless they “fulfill a graduation requirement.”
In addition to this change, the HED was quoted in the LESC Bill Analysis stating that “the development of a comprehensive, statewide transfer policy for military credit reflected on JST could be developed in parallel with the department’s existing work on articulation, transfer, and common course numbering.” The key word here is “could.” Why didn’t they use a word such as “will?” They used “could” because that gives them an out and leaves them uncommitted to the plan.
SB 153 did not have any substantive requirements for HED, nor did it have any implementation timeline. If our legislature truly cared about Veterans, they would require SB 103 and HB 108 to include language that requires HED to develop a “comprehensive, statewide transfer policy for military credit reflected on JST that will be developed in parallel with the department’s existing work on articulation, transfer, and common course numbering.”
They should also change the definition of “articulation” back to its original meaning or include another provision that excludes military transfer credits from these requirements.
The legislature is rushing HB 108 and SB 103 through without taking into consideration so many variables, including Veterans issues. I ask that you call your representatives and ask for them to vote “no” on HB 108 and SB 103.

* I served 15 years in the military and my wife served 12 years. We both gave up our careers to use of G.I. Bills and get an education. I was able to complete an Associate Degree in General Studies from Central Texas Community College, a BA in Business and Management from St. Martin’s University, start a MBA at UNM and get my Juris Doctor from UNM School of Law. My wife completed her Associate Degree in General Studies from University of Maryland University College, was the first student in UNM history to earn a BA in Chicano Studies, is in the process of finishing her MA in American Studies at UNM, and has started her PhD in Visual & Cultural Studies at the University of Rochester.

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4 Reasons NOT to Vote for Susana Martinez

August 12, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Gov Martinez

It is time to wake up New Mexico! Why does one of the most corrupt governors in the entire country have a chance in hell to be re-elected? This is a politician who switched her party affiliation in the mid 1990’s because a few millionaires convinced her to be the poster-child of the “new” Hispanic-friendly republican party. She is a puppet for the GOP and must be stopped before she completely destroys the Land of Enchantment. Here are 4 reasons to fear her re-election:

1. She believes that anybody who has an accent is a “retard”

Secret recordings of a conversation between Governor Martinez and one of her aides referred to former Speaker Ben Lujan as “a retard” when he speaks English.

Now, she argues that she did not make the “retard” comment, but she did not say anything about it. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said:

“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty of the bad people, but the silence over that by the good people.”

A true leader would have said something and defended those who speak with an accent and forbid the use of the word “retard” in her administration. Her grandparents were immigrants from Mexico who had an accent. She didn’t even stand up for them.

2. Her war against behavioral health providers is dangerous and corrupt

Governor Martinez’s administration hired a firm to perform a medicaid audit on 15 non-profit behavioral health providers. Based on a faulty report and statistical extrapolation, her administration permanently shut down the 15 providers and hired a company from Arizona to take over.

Now… During the July 2014 LHHS Behavioral Sub-Committee meeting, State Auditor Hector Balderas said that the actions of the Administration would be similar to taking over a University based on alleged fraud, firing everybody before they could respond, and hiring an out-of-state university to take over.

The behavioral health scenario could be an entire series of articles. But the reality is that the Arizona companies that took over are not prepared to work with the community. A rash of mentally ill homeless individuals have had encounters with the APD since the take-over happened. Governor Martinez is to blame for this because the patients are not getting adequate care.

hunger

3. Governor Martinez has declared war on the poor

Staying true to her “new” party beliefs, Governor Martinez has shown contempt for anybody below the middle-class. Her administration has recently declared that individuals on food stamps between the ages of 16-59 will be required to work at least 20 hours per week to be eligible for food stamps.

That is ridiculous. New Mexico is 48th in job growth in the country and has the highest food insecurity rate in the country. People will starve while they are looking for a job that does not exist.

4. Governor Martinez could care less if Veterans suffer

Although her Administration has made a few small steps towards recognizing some of the benefits of medical marijuana, she vowed in 2010 to repeal New Mexico’s medical marijuana law.

Medical marijuana is used to help patients deal with severe pain and trauma. The benefits are well documented and cannot be denied. The administration recently attempted to tighten the rules without public comment, but the people fought back.

If she gets re-elected, she will continue to make medical marijuana a part of her war on the less fortunate. Full legalization will not happen under her watch.

Fight Back!

These are just a few of the reasons why she cannot win re-election. Gary King must win! She hates undocumented immigrants, opposes same-sex marriage, carries a gun, and is a Koch Brother puppet. She bathes in Big Oil and is showered in money from out-of-state interests.

Governor Martinez switched parties because she was promised piles of money and support from the conservative right. She answers to the almighty dollar and will stop at nothing to accumulate it. She loves being in power and could care less about the people of New Mexico. She must be stopped!

 

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