May Day organizers in Albuquerque called for a strike: no trabajo, no escuela, no compras. Hundreds of students and teachers heeded the call at Albuquerque High School.
Students and teachers at AHS left class early to protest looming budget cuts to public education. They blamed Albuquerque Public Schools, the NM Public Education Department and profiteers like Pearson, the parasitic standardized testing company.
Last month, the Board of Education for Albuquerque Public Schools unanimously approved a “budget reduction scenario” to cover a projected 2 percent, or $12.6 million budget cut. The “scenario” includes larger class sizes, reduced staff workdays, a heavier high school schedule and possible layoffs. When APS announced it would also scrap all middle school athletics, community outrage forced them to retreat for the first time.
Other after-school programs are on the chopping block, even though they are proven to help struggling students stay out of trouble and increase academic performance. But this is being ignored by local politicians.
APS budget cuts will pretty much only affect lower income families.
Race to the bottom
The economic contraction caused by the Great Recession led to a decline in oil and gas production that hit New Mexico hard, resulting in state budget shortfalls. Instead of raising taxes on the rich, Governor Martinez, a school privatization crusader, has addressed the crisis by repeatedly taking money from public schools and not putting it back.
Last October, Martinez took $12.5 million from APS to address a budget deficit. In January, Martinez took another $12.5 million from APS, this time from its rainy day fund, to keep the state solvent. Now, to address the 2018 fiscal year budget shortfall, APS is again starring down the barrel of a gun, facing another $12.6 million cut!
Meanwhile, Martinez repeatedly refuses to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations.
Since 2003, the wealthiest New Mexicans have had the income tax rate cut in half. Poor New Mexicans pay over 10 percent of their income in state and local taxes. Rich New Mexicans pay less than 5 percent.
While raiding public schools for money, state authorities cut corporate income tax rates for companies with a net worth over $500,000 from 7.6 percent in 2013 to 5.9 percent by 2018!
Faced with devastating cuts, local governments are now resorting to gimmicks like “soda-taxes” to try and fund K-12 education, which is a regressive tax that further burdens low and middle income wage earners, sparing the rich.
One Albuquerque Public School, Hodgin Elementary, sent a letter home to parents begging for help to buy copy paper, ink and other essentials to help children learn.
Privatization through cuts, fines and defunding
New Mexico ranks 49th in child well-being, and 50th in education. With these statistics, education should be made a top priority, instead of being in the predicament it is in today.
APS budget cuts are escalating the education crisis in New Mexico!
To make matters even worse, these cuts are coming on top of the state Public Education Department’s disastrous and controversial Every Student Succeeds Act plan. The federally funded plan penalizes schools for low student grades, low Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers testing scores and rigged teacher evaluations.
The loss of funding becomes compounded by non-stop budget cuts, which lead to more failing scores, and more loss of funding.
The policies of unpopular Public Education Secretary Hanna Skandera, a pro-privatization advocate, and Gov. Susana Martinez continue to be detrimental to the education system in New Mexico. The budget cuts along with emphasis on testing are all part of a greater effort to destroy and privatize public education, making quality education available only to those who can afford it. The trend across the country has been to sabotage public education by placing them in a Catch 22 of being penalized for low grades that require needed funding to correct in the first place.
For the benefit of the working class, public education must be funded far more than it is now. Today, schools across the nation are not appropriately equipped with resources to handle the assault being waged against them. This crisis in public education can only be solved through socialism, where corporate interests will be eradicated from our schools. Education is a right for all students, not just those who can afford to pay top dollar!
