AG’s opinion sought after Skandera hearings

Lopez: Asked for legal opinions on issues from hearings

Lopez’s committee held three hearings and heard about 10 hours of testimony but never took a vote on a committee recommendation for Skandera’s confirmation.

Lopez said the confirmation hearings for Skandera would continue through the year.

Lopez said at the end of the third hearing on March 9 that more information was needed before the committee could vote and asked the Public Education Department to provide documents.

Public Education Department spokesman Larry Behrens said an estimated 3,500 pages of documents were provided on March 10 in response to Lopez’s request.

“If Sen. Lopez were serious about these concerns, she would’ve asked the secretary during the over 10 hours of hearings, or anytime during the last two years,” Behrens said in statement Wednesday.

Gov. Susana Martinez, who named Skandera to her post in January 2011, has called Lopez’s explanations for the drawn-out consideration of the nomination circus-like and “ridiculous.”

Lopez did not return calls for comment late Wednesday.

Lopez asked King in her letter Wednesday to determine whether the New Mexico Virtual Charter School — sanctioned by Farmington Municipal Schools — acted legally in hiring a for-profit company, K12 Inc., to operate an online charter school funded with state tax dollars.

Rules Committee member Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque, said Wednesday that Skandera and the Public Education Department should be held financially responsible for the virtual charter school’s operations, although it was the Farmington Municipal Schools board that approved the contract.

“The way the contract is set up , the contractor makes more money as the contractor spends less money on students,” Ivey-Soto said. “I think that is a tremendous concern.”

Skandera said during the third confirmation hearing that the school complied with all state laws.

Lopez also asked the attorney general to issue legal opinions on matters raised during the hearings by Michael Corwin, director of the union-backed Independent Source PAC, whose participation in the hearings drew objections from Republicans.

Skandera: Appointed to Education Department in 2011

Lopez said she wants the attorney general to determine whether the Public Education Department acted properly in distributing 85 percent of $2 million in state bond proceeds to the 10 percent of schools the department deemed as top-performing schools.

Lopez also asked King to give the committee an update on his investigation of an information request to the education department from the governor’s political adviser.
— This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal