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Since she arrived in New Mexico just over two years ago, Hanna Skandera has been a peppy, friendly lightning rod.
If you like her, she’s a breath of fresh air, a dogged innovator and exactly what this state’s stagnant education system needs to turn it around.
If you don’t like her, she’s a carpet-bagging ideologue with no actual education experience who’s bent on pushing the Jeb Bush handbook.
Gov. Susana Martinez touted her pick for the state’s top education post two years ago as a “proven reformer,” and Skandera got to work bringing a package of policies called “the Florida model” to New Mexico. And the Senate Rules Committee started to snub her, never managing to get around to scheduling a confirmation hearing that would allow her to officially serve.
Now it has. And the hearings, happening hour after hour live in Santa Fe and webcast to the rest of us, are shaping up as some of New Mexico’s best political theater.
Imagine going deep into a “House of Cards” binge on Netflix, except that this political thriller stars our own friends and neighbors.
The star of the show, Skandera – the not-yet-40 ingenue in boots and a blazer – has yet to speak a line while a cast of hundreds of extras has gone to the microphone to sing her praises or pelt her with spitballs and use the word “pedagogy” way too often.
Committee Chairwoman Linda Lopez, playing her part like a sharp-tongued governess, on Saturday pumped up the intrigue factor at about hour seven of the show, alleging she felt bullied when she was visited by document-seeking lawyers for the governor and the education department after the Roundhouse had cleared out Friday night.
Lopez stared out at one of the lawyers and said, “I get the ploy, I understand what you were trying to do.”
It’s all fine political theater, but amid the posturing there’s also some good democracy going on. Lots of people cared enough to drive to Santa Fe to weigh in on education. And a committee of state senators took the time to listen to each and every one of them.
Over the course of the hearings, Skandera has been criticized as being a businesswoman, not an educator. For being an outsider, not a New Mexican. And for demeaning teachers, not understanding classrooms and creating a hostile work environment. She has also been praised for being an outsider. For demanding results from failing teachers and failing schools. And for bringing a fresh approach.
Hanna Skandera spent hours listening to compliments and criticism during the public comment portion of her confirmation before the Senate Rules Committee on March 1 in Santa Fe. (MARLA BROSE/JOURNAL)
Skandera, on the job for more than two years in unconfirmed limbo, deserves it all.
She deserves to be publicly praised for her hard work, her dogged community outreach and her commitment to change. And she deserves to be publicly criticized by teachers who feel she has belittled their efforts and reduced teaching children to the level of widget making.
She deserves the opportunity to have her brand of reform held up to scrutiny, and she also deserves to have allegations that she rigged a job for a political insider and used her staff to do political work examined in the open air.
After two years of work, she deserves a hearing on her merits.
Senate confirmation of the managers a governor appoints to run state agencies is one of the checks and balances in our state system. Once elected, a governor gets to pick her team, but state senators get the opportunity to question the appointees and approve them or bounce them on a confirmation vote.
It’s usually a pro forma exercise. If senators don’t like a governor’s picks, they ask embarrassing questions, needle them a little bit and end up confirming them anyway.
If it looks like Skandera is getting special scrutiny, she is.
Skandera has spent her career working as a political appointee in only Republican administrations, and no doubt that’s earning her an extra measure of skepticism from Democrats.
And because of the delay in scheduling the hearing, she has an actual record in New Mexico that can be scrutinized.
To borrow one of Skandera’s most frequently used cliches, the Senate Rules Committee should be looking at Skandera with a “laser focus.” She, her supporters and her critics deserve for the hearings to continue – so Skandera gets a chance to respond to questions and to get an up-or-down vote based on her record.
UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Leslie at 505-823-3914 or llinthicum@abqjournal.com. Go to www.abqjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal
Reprint story -- Email the reporter at lesliel@abqjournal.com. Call the reporter at 505-823-3914
