{"id":515175,"date":"2018-02-03T21:06:23","date_gmt":"2018-02-04T04:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=515175"},"modified":"2018-02-03T21:06:23","modified_gmt":"2018-02-04T04:06:23","slug":"state-budget-should-support-all-students-and-all-their-educators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/02\/state-budget-should-support-all-students-and-all-their-educators\/","title":{"rendered":"State budget should support all students and all their educators"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:\u00a0<\/strong>We applaud the N.M. House of Representatives for sending a bipartisan budget bill (House Bill 2<\/a>) to the Senate with increased support for New Mexico public school students. The increase does not make up for decades of short-changing our students, but it is a positive move toward a more prosperous New Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u201d are New Mexico educators. Students are at the center of all we do \u2013 in the classroom, in the library and school offices, on the buses and in the cafeterias.<\/p>\n

\"Betty

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Betty Patterson<\/p><\/div>\n

We remain concerned the budget includes $5 million for governor\u2019s call for so-called \u201cMerit Pay\u201d program (a.k.a.\u201dExemplary Teacher Awards\u201d). The evaluation system underlying that program is unfair, so therefore the granting of any bonuses based on that evaluation system has huge problems.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s Public Education Department fails to provide any evidence the program helps students, addresses the teacher shortage, or improves student outcomes.<\/p>\n

NEA-New Mexico has consistently called for creating a teacher evaluation system that provides local districts flexibility beyond the standardized student tests to measure student progress, and for transparent, improvement-focused evaluations. Our suggestions are still not adopted;\u00a0a better, fairer way to evaluate quality teaching is still needed.<\/p>\n

Proponents of the \u201cmerit pay\u201d program challenge educator unions to put forward our own proposals for how to\u00a0reward teachers and improve student success. We\u2019ve done that year after year, but let\u2019s review some of our ideas.<\/p>\n

Too many high performing educators are leaving, and many are replaced by long-term substitutes with little or no qualifications. Working conditions, including compensation, are the main reason for teachers leaving.<\/p>\n

One-time \u201cbonus\u201d rewards are not helping. The teacher shortage grows, and after many years of trying \u201cMerit Pay,\u201d there is zero evidence it improves student outcomes here.<\/p>\n

Special education teachers profoundly impact student success yet have little chance at being rated \u201cexemplary,\u201d or earning the so-called \u201cmerit pay.\u201d Counselors, librarians, nurses, therapists and other professionals are categorically excluded.<\/p>\n

Consider other ways to help educators keep leading students toward success: Housing and child-care supports; offering forgivable loans and service scholarships to attract and retain teachers; creating \u201cGrow Your Own\u201d programs to prepare individuals already working in the schools, including education assistants.<\/p>\n

Individuals are more likely to become and remain teachers when salaries are competitive with other occupations. Both beginning and veteran teachers are more likely to quit when their salaries are low relative to other opportunities, especially in mathematics and science.<\/p>\n

In New Mexico, teacher salaries now amount to only about 66 percent of the salaries of other college-educated workers. Significant systemwide raises for all educators and licensure-level minimum salary increases are needed.<\/p>\n

Create more time for teachers\u2019 collaborative planning. Support educator-led professional development. End \u201ccanned\u201d trainings by for-profit providers.<\/p>\n

Fund pay for additional assignments like peer coaching and mentoring.<\/p>\n

We aim for success for every student in every New Mexico classroom. Just \u201crewarding\u201d certain teachers is counterproductive and fails to \u201cget [all] our kids on track, and ahead, academically.\u201d To improve outcomes for all students, support all educators.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Betty\u00a0Patterson is the president of the\u00a0National Education Association-New Mexico<\/a>.\u00a0Agree with her opinion? Disagree? We welcome your views. Learn about submitting your own commentary\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We applaud the N.M. House of Representatives for sending a bipartisan budget bill to the Senate with increased support for New Mexico public school students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":125913,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[3634,196,234,125,107],"class_list":["post-515175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-2018-legislative-session","tag-budget","tag-children","tag-education","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}