Tone Deaf and Confident

Even during hard times when voters are asked, if you knew that your money was going to education, would you agree to increase taxes or something like that—they always say yes

That is a quote from Albuquerque Teachers Federation President Ellen Bernstein responding to warnings from Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Winston Brooks cryptically warning of further education budget cuts.

Worst-case scenario, we could be looking at cutting $64 million ... all of those numbers are estimates right now. Please do not take any of them as gospel

No one knows with any certainty what the future holds for the school district’s funding and the union leader has no qualms with sticking it to the taxpayer to shovel more money into the furnace that goes by the blanket term ‘education’.

The only answer that the taxpayer can provide that may actually lead to an improved APS is a shut wallet. Scare tactics from a bumbling superintendent are only meant as a hedge to game the public into more funding as desired by the teacher’s union. Both of these statements are complimentary and outline the same tactic that has failed education time and again, more money.

More money is not the answer and that conclusion is supported by the fact that as taxpayers have been more than generous over and over again as acknowledged by AFT president Bernstein, nothing has changed. ‘Education’ has not improved for the children that are used as a cudgel to guilt citizens into throwing money at the same old same old.

The reason why is that more money only grows the same failing system and that system is a growth of programs meant to solve problems by endless study and moving around students into various school activities that are not in any way tied to education. This is the same ‘try something’ charade that never does any good because adding to a wasteful system while not honestly addressing the actual cause of issues within the public schools does nothing. And these new programs once established, never go away and always want more.

Teary eyed politicians always want to ‘keep money in the classroom’ and ‘in education’ and the problem is that as the schools add more and more programs and studies, each requires more and more management which have nothing to do with any actual education. The problem is that the money is not literally spent on the classroom but a gigantic, out of proportion support system whose only goal is to feed it and grow ever larger.

Since inception the public schools answer to its many problems has always been more funding and they have always been granted more funding only to deliver worse results every time. It is more than past time to try real reform, to force the school districts who insist on digging into our pockets to be fully accountable. The public should know every program, every employee and every purpose of our funding. As the public we must hold administrators, school board members, teachers and every employee of the public schools accountable and determine what programs actually work and which teachers actually teach. It is time to rid ourselves of anything that is not directly tied to real, actual education within APS.