NEA president talks on educators running for office
National leader to speak at the NEA-New Mexico meeting today
National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen García, who is in New Mexico to speak at the NEA-New Mexico annual delegate council meeting, likes what she’s seeing.
That is in terms of the wave of educators who are running for office, both in New Mexico and across the country.
The leader of the 3 millionmember union highlighted Howie Morales, a former educator in public school classrooms in Grant County who is running for lieutenant governor on the Democratic ticket, and Stephanie Garcia Richard, another Democrat who is running for state land commissioner and used to be an elementary school teacher.
And she said about 1,500 educators are running for public office nationwide.
It’s something the president of four years has experience in, having run for Congress in the past.
While she wasn’t elected in the Utah contest, she said it was a symbolic win as she garnered 45 percent of the vote.
Eskelsen García planned to address this and rally for the “education election” in her speech at the NEA-New Mexico meeting today at Isleta Resort and Casino.
Eskelsen García also is pleased that community schools are gaining in popularity.
“The community school movement is taking off like wildfire and is starting in our poorest neighborhoods,” she said.
She stressed the importance of community schools, which she said provide resources for children that may not be funded by the district, including basic health services or afterschool programs.
“I think that is what’s going to really transform a public school into a public community hub,” she said.
Last year, she attended the ribbon cutting for Las Cruces’ first community school, Lynn Middle School. Eskelsen García has been known to stress the message of investing in the “whole child,” which she has said is investing in the needs of a child beyond common core testing.
In line with that message, her advice for New Mexico to transform its education landscape is to take inventory of schools that are fully staffed — including with a school nurse, librarian and counselor — and all its arts and sports programs intact, which she said is more common in affluent neighborhoods.
“Where I come from, that’s like finding a unicorn,” she said.
Then, she suggested the state should use that inventory as the “standard for all children.”