Truancy has been a topic of discussion of late here in New Mexico. Unfortunately, most energy and political effort has been expended on the enforcement end. Unfortunately, as I argue in the Farmington Daily-Times truancy is a clear indicator that students (and to an extent their parents) don’t value education. The problem is, of course, [...]

The Rio Grande Foundation has long been critical of our system of government-run schools. There are many reasons for this, but one important reason is that the institutional design of the schools themselves and the government’s management of them makes it very difficult to serve the diverse needs of our children. Nowhere is this dynamic [...]

I have often heard that one of the keys to improving our failing education system (both here in New Mexico and nationwide) is to get business leaders and the business community more involved in education. While forcing schools to adhere to the principles that businesses must adhere to in a competitive economy is the centerpiece [...]

Yesterday’s Albuquerque Journal featured an article titled APS Will Cover $20M Funding Hit. Apparently, the state did an audit in 2007 that found that the Albuquerque Public Schools district was over-reporting teacher experience and special education staff. The state determined that it had given APS $20 million too much because of these errors. Part of [...]

The state of Georgia is on a roll. Over the weekend I blogged about an important piece of health care legislation that was recently signed into law by Gov. Sonny Perdue and expressed my hope that New Mexico would follow suit. Now, we receive word that the Georgia Legislature has passed and the Governor has [...]

According to Zsombor Peter of the Albuquerque Journal ($1M Spent on Truancy, With Little To Show for It, Apr. 22, 2008), the state government has recently released a report documenting that 67% of APS high school students are classified as habitually truant from class. The state high school average is 33%. In his 2003 “state [...]

The Rio Grande Foundation and Moises Venegas have worked together on education choice issues in the past. Most recently, we were part of a loose coalition on behalf of education tax credits. While we consistently approach the education issue from a pro-freedom perspective, Venegas, particularly in an article “Poorer Students Lost in Rush to Create [...]

While New Mexico’s Legislature failed to pass legislation that would allow individuals and businesses to take a credit against their state taxes for donations to organizations that offer scholarships to children in K-12 schools, another state, Georgia, is on the verge of adopting such a law. All that is necessary at this point is a [...]

Readers of this blog and followers of our work are probably aware of the failures of New Mexico’s education system. One study even found that New Mexico ranked dead last (51st in the nation in a study that included Washington, DC) in measuring what the study called “a child’s chance at success” as it pertains [...]

The March issue of the Heartland Institute’s excellent publication which follows education and education-related reforms, covered a recent study by Dr. Harry Messenheimer on the failure of New Mexico’s ever-increasing spending on K-12 education. Messenheimer’s study, “The Way to Education Success in New Mexico: Breaking Free from Failed ‘Reforms” find several important facts, including: “Over [...]