Election Edition

That said, I decided to offer some of my perspective about how the election outcomes could affect education in New Mexico.

As my colleague Deborah Baker outlined here, much of the drama in this election is playing out in the state Legislature, particularly as Republicans try to win control of the House of Representatives. This would help Republican Gov. Susana Martinez push through pieces of her agenda that have been stymied heretofore: banning drivers licenses for immigrants in the country illegally, and requiring that third-graders be held back if they can’t pass a test showing grade-level reading skills.

Some campaign literature has centered on the third-grade retention issue, like the mailer above, which was sent to one of my colleagues. On the back is an attack on Democrat Emily Kane, who is running for a seat in the House. The ad came from Reform New Mexico Now, a Republican SuperPAC. SuperPACs have had a big impact in New Mexico this year, as my colleagues discussed here.

So, a couple things about this ad. For one thing, the folks over at Reform NM Now obviously didn’t read my story on the educational value of games. For another, there are some things in New Mexico law that get lost in this debate. Now, smart people can disagree about whether we should be holding more students back or teaching reading differently. But current New Mexico law allows schools to hold students back. If parents object, the students get passed to the next grade once, and then the school can override parents if they object for a second time to a school’s recommendation for retention.

What Martinez wants instead is a law that can override parents on the first recommendation, and in which retention decisions are based more on standardized test scores, rather than a teacher’s discretion. The argument is that teachers too seldom use that discretion, and so it has become customary to just pass kids along. My colleague Leslie Linthicum (who of course writes a column and has more discretion than beat reporters) did this column about what the research says on third-grade retention.

So there’s that. It’s hard to say if victory in the House would even help Martinez that much, since third-grade retention has actually cleared the House before, and has been held up in the Senate. The Senate is controlled by Democrats, and it seems beyond the Governor’s reach to pick up a Republican majority there.

Enjoy the rest of your Election Day, read the paper, and for goodness’ sake, vote!