NMPED can’t abandon districts; APS must step up

What should the bottom line of education funding be? a. To get a return on investment, i.e. student improvement, or b. To reach as many students as possible. The better question is why should the two be mutually exclusive? On one side there’s Christopher Ruszkowski, acting secretary of New Mexico’s Public Education Department, who says the governor and his department “have all put a real premium on return on investment for taxpayer dollars as it pertains to student achievement in recent years. That is the overarching principle . ... ”

It sounds good in theory — taxpayers want the most bang for their buck and don’t want to throw limited resources at things that don’t deliver. But in practice it means funding for Reads to Lead, which provides reading coaches to students in kindergarten through third grade, is no longer going to Albuquerque Public Schools, which is entrusted with educating more than 80,000 kids and where only 22 percent of third-graders can read at grade level.

On the other side there’s APS, where Carrie Robin Brunder, director of government affairs and policy, says because the emphasis is now on results “we were not funded in any way, shape or form, which means 24 of our schools in Albuquerque are going to lose the support of a reading coach.”

And that sounds unjust in theory — except APS has consistently lobbied to reduce “below the line” funding for Reads to Lead, K-3 Plus (which adds extra school days to the year) and similar programs that target specific needs and a return on investment. Instead, APS wants more funding through the state formula, in which all districts receive the same amount per student and the districts decide how to spend it regardless of outcomes.

APS in recent years has received money for the Reads to Leads program — with no quantifiable results. In fact, APS’ third-grade reading scores fell 1.6 percentage points from the 2016 to 2017 school years while all other Reads to Lead districts and charters improved. As Ruszkowski points out, “you have this pattern of seeing APS receive additional funding and opportunity, but those dollars are not yielding return on investment.”

Now back to the original question, which should be considered through the eyes of parents as well as business owners and community leaders, who not only fund the programs with their taxes but want the best for their kids and are depending on an educated workforce to take their place:

a. Do you ignore the needs of the thousands of students in APS — and Santa Fe and Aztec public schools — because the adults in those districts aren’t administering programs that deliver results like their counterparts in Cobre Consolidated Schools or Alamogordo? (Those districts delivered gains and received $521,149 and $322,100, respectively, in Reads to Lead funding this school year.) Or

b. Do you continue spreading scarce resources thinner and thinner, with everybody getting a little but nobody getting enough, until there’s no measurable return on investment anywhere?

Right now NMPED is going with option “a,” which leaves out too many students — and Ruszkowski himself has said the state can’t move its results up without APS.

Meanwhile, APS, Sen. Mimi Stewart and teacher’s union spokesman Charles Goodmacher are going with option “b,” with Goodmacher claiming it’s politics that’s driving who gets funded and Stewart saying “our students should not be thought of as return on investments.”

What about an option c.? Implement program requirements for Reads to Leads based on best practices. And before cutting off funding to a low-performing district, work with it to make sure it is making adjustments and following those best practices.

The APS school board has been outspoken in its criticism of many of PED’s reforms. Its 80,000 students shouldn’t be punished for those adults’ actions. But neither should PED throw money at APS programs that are not working. Under option “c,” PED gives APS much-needed money for much-needed programs as long as it is willing to adopt best practices that work elsewhere.

And that’s imperative for the state’s largest school district.