Skandera rips charter school moratorium
Dem rep overreached, education leader says
New Mexico Secretary of Education Hanna Skandera blasted a Democratic legislator’s proposed 2½-year charter school moratorium, calling the plan an irresponsible overreach that would harm students.
“The governor and I feel very strongly about this issue,” Skandera said. “Our kids should come first every step of the way. What that means is every parent deserves a choice to give them an opportunity to make decisions in the best interest of their student, and charters provide that.”
Under the bill introduced by Rep. Christine Trujillo, D-Albuquerque, no new charter schools would be approved in New Mexico from June 1, 2017, to Jan. 1, 2020. Skandera recognized that some New Mexico charter schools are not offering a high-quality education, but she said a moratorium is extreme and inappropriate.
“That would be like taking the pendulum and having it swing way over and missing the point,” she added. “What’s the point of a charter school? It’s giving students an option, a public school option, that allows for them to make sure that their needs are met.”
Rather than halt all new charters, the state should hold low-performing schools to stricter standards and close them if they can’t improve, Skandera said.
Trujillo argued that the state needs to take a breather to review the charter school system, which has been criticized for poor fiscal oversight and heavy use of public funds.
The retired educator and former American Federation of Teachers state president said she is not anti-charter,
but wants more accountability.
“I work with the charter schools; I am not an opponent of charter schools,” said Trujillo, whose sister teaches at a Taos charter. “We need to stop and reassess what is going on and how do we best address things for the community.”
A number of organizations back some form of a charter school moratorium, including the New Mexico Coalition of Educational Leaders, New Mexico School Superintendents Association and New Mexico School Boards Association.
Joe Guillen, NMSBA executive director, has supported the idea for several years because he thinks the charter funding formula is unfair to traditional public schools.
According to a report from the Legislative Education Study Committee and Legislative Finance Committee, charters collect more from the state per student than school districts — $8,728 versus $7,639.
Districts and charters are essentially competing for students, who take funding with them if they leave a traditional public school for an alternative.
With oil and gas revenues decreasing, New Mexico doesn’t have any money to spare this year. Every part of the state budget has been slashed to address a large deficit, and education is going to take a hit. Albuquerque Public Schools could lose up to $29million for the current fiscal year, with more cuts to come for fiscal year 2018.
“No. 1, what is leading generally to the initiative this year is a shortage of funding,” Guillen said.
At the same time, a number of charters have gotten into trouble for racking up heavy debts. Two Albuquerque schools — Bataan Military Academy and La Resolana Leadership Academy — recently lost their charters after going several hundred thousand dollars in the red.
Charter school advocates point out that the state’s 97 charters include top institutions like the Albuquerque Institute for Mathematics and Science, which is No.1 based on three years of school grades.
AIMS and a second Albuquerque charter, Cottonwood Classical Preparatory, are “Gold Medal” schools, according to U.S. News and World Report.
In addition, the number of New Mexico charter schools has barely budged during the past few years.
Among the 42 states that authorize charter schools, only Maryland, Ohio and Arizona have added fewer charter schools than New Mexico since 2011, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
The New Mexico Public Education Commission and individual districts have the power to grant charters under state statute. During the past school year, PEC did not approve any new schools.