The Senate Rules Committee of the New Mexico Legislature is starting a hearing tomorrow to confirm Hanna Skandera as Susana Martinez' Secretary of Education. The committee will give the nomination a do-pass or do-not-pass, and then the full Senate will vote on it. Skandera has served as secretary-designate for three years already, so we have a good idea of how schools, teachers and education are faring under her administration. I'll explain my reasons for urging a "do-not-pass" vote below the fold, but for those of you who will only read this far-
PLEASE contact the members of the rules committee and let them know what you think of the job Ms. Skandera has done so far for New Mexico. There's no time to waste!
Let me make it quick, so I can send off some more sternly worded letters. When I think of the work Hanna Skandera has done as Secretary-Designate, here is what I think of....
Credentials
Hanna Skandera didn't learn her theories of education in the classroom but in the Jeb Bush administration. Unfortunately, our state constitution demands that an educator be education secretary.
Transparency
Sometimes you know she's up to sinister stuff, but it's hard to tell how sinister.
Remember when Skandera couldn't even answer questions about her own school grading system?
Or what about all those shady Bush/corporate ties, like with the virtual school she approved? What's that about approving a big Bush donor while turning down local efforts?
Working With Teachers
Skandera riled teachers' unions by proposing to link teacher pay to student test scores, earned herself a No Confidence vote, and it's all-out war these days.
After riling the unions, there weren't any good education mouthpieces for SusanaPAC, so there was the sketchy business with mining PED data for political marketing.
School Boards, Too
Then there was that one time that Skandera suspended a whole school board. Good times, right?
Fiscal Responsibility
Which brings us to the current issue of losing as much as $93 million dollars, at least half of which should have been spent on special education programs (which includes gifted programs), and not notifying the legislature until it's too late.
I can't get into the personal stories, but I have heard plenty of horror stories from parents and teachers (and parents who are teachers).
The committee meeting may take a couple of days, but today is the best time to contact committee members with a brief note stating your position, or (as I will try not to write) a 30 page rant on the destructive policies and tactics of this Secretary Designate.