Southwest Public Policy Institute
In May, the Albuquerque Journal’s Esteban Candelaria reported on the proposed budget of Albuquerque Public Schools. The APS Board of Education was taken aback by the funding request: $1.936 billion for fiscal year 2023. At almost $2 billion, this budget represents a 16.73% increase from the 2022 allocation. Simultaneously, APS has seen a marked enrollment […]
Anti-transparency measures have a proven and lasting impact of obstructing the ability of government to maintain its own accountability. On Wednesday morning, Tristan Justice, the western correspondent for The Federalist, published an article with updates on how Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s anti-transparent administration is directly responsible for obstructing an investigation into the death of a […]
New Mexico suffered from some of the most draconian pandemic-related school closures in the country: how did this impact educational outcomes? On Tuesday, Esteban Candelaria, a staff writer with the Albuquerque Journal, reported on delays in academic assessment reporting from the New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED). While data from SAT testing will be made […]
The nation mourns the loss of so many innocent lives. How do we prevent future tragedy? The answer is school choice. In New Mexico, Senator Martin Heinrich is capitalizing on the Uvalde school shooting to demand changes in gun laws. Elsewhere, former President Barack Obama is using the crisis to stoke racial tension. They are […]
Texas is the most recent state to leave the NSBA following the “domestic terrorism” controversy involving Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland. The Texas School Board Association (TSBA) announced on Monday that it was cutting ties with the National School Boards Association (NSBA). The NSBA sent a letter to President Biden in September 2021 requesting federal […]
Are the worst educational outcomes on record causing declining enrollment? Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Scott Elder announced a need to trim 5% of its staff in the coming school year in response to an enrollment-driven deficit estimated at $17 million. The media dutifully reported that the district faces a “budget deficit,” but that is not […]
Earlier this week, more than ten school districts around New Mexico, including Santa Fe Public Schools, have returned to remote learning. These closures follow trends in blue-state urban centers like Chicago where the Chicago Teachers Union announced a remote work action following winter break. While the union’s actions amounted to a legally questionable strike, 63% […]
As the far-left solidifies its stranglehold on all branches of New Mexico’s state government, more than ever we need an aggressive media and informed constituency to demand accountability in a system proven to produce abuses without. These abuses have never been more readily apparent than in the aftermath of a recent Searchlight New Mexico investigation . In […]