The corporatization of APS has left teens feeling like a number
Dr. Thomas Sowell wrote “Politicians, unions, give lip service to minority education.” Dr. Sowell is addressing the huge business that public school systems have become.
When I began teaching in 1960, New Mexico and California were considered to have the best schools in our nation and the best-paid teachers. Today, we rank as almost the worst.
Over the years I have seen poor decisions and growing problems. Teachers in secondary education had over 140 students each day. There were fights in the halls. My junior high school was built for 1,000 but there were 1,700 students. Did you wonder why all the little barracks were needed and why parents had to buy backpacks?
When I retired in the 90s APS bought a huge office building up-town to “run the system.” Today there are offices around the city, where employees never see a student or a classroom.
APS is a corporate business. Private schools are deemed evil and discouraged by politicians and unions. They don’t want the competition for money, much less in test scores.
Moving sixth graders to huge middle schools was ignorant. Larger schools, with no caring teacher and more different classes, leads to confusion and chaos. A real reason we have such a huge dropout rate from the sixth to ninth grade.
The very size of the classes, the system, and buildings affects the quality of education. A study of American schools tells us in the past smaller schools, serving children, families, and a specific community, were successful.
My father-in-law, Dr. Noah C. Turpen, superintendent during the 60s and 70s, taught me there has to be a size limit in classes and schools.
If the elementary teacher cannot give each child the attention needed, the joy and future success of learning is lost. Students need to understand not just how to read but how what they read will be important in their life.
Elementary should not exceed 1,000. Secondary not over 1,500. Today we have hit over 3,000 in some schools. Many teens feel like just a number, lose interest and drop out. This is especially true today with poverty, racial conflict, less family life, and so many failed marriages and single-parent homes.
The desire to combine schools and consolidate may be a good step. But only if the student has a close community that supports the school and classes remain manageable.
If parents are not there, children need a mentor who cares.
When I taught at a small high school the parents and community were of primary importance in my success. I never got any real help from the union or the school board.
For over 25 years my fine arts and elective classes were reasonable and a joy. But I watched as English, math, and science classes struggled with overcrowding, confusion in scheduling and poor decisions made by those in authority.
During that period I watched three superintendents have to leave because of alcoholism, or sexual mistreatment of women. For them to “buy out” their contracts cost hundreds of thousands of dollars that belonged to our children.
Our corporate system has been warned it is too big. It is still run through one superintendent and one school board.
Citizens of Albuquerque take a stand, encourage smaller community schools. There is money to make better decisions, choices that embrace the child, the parents and our communities.