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Sunday, February 15, 2009

Business Earned a Say in Education

By Don Chalmers And Terri L. Cole
Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce
          Ellen Bernstein, president of the Albuquerque Teachers Federation, made some extremely critical remarks regarding the opposition of statewide business organizations to the tax increases proposed to increase funding for public schools.
        Those associated with the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce's long-standing efforts on behalf of education were stunned by Bernstein's assertion that "they have no business in the education business." She further remarked that members of the business community "either need to support the kind of funding education needs ... or they need to be quiet."
        Apparently Bernstein has conveniently forgotten the Chamber's commitment to improving education in New Mexico since 1999. That includes our support of the 2003 constitutional amendment that significantly increased teacher salaries. The margin of success at the polls was razor thin. Would she have preferred we remain quiet then?
        The business community will not be quiet. Around 140,000 businesses statewide contribute well over $300 million a month in employee taxes as well as gross receipts and compensating taxes — that's approximately $4.5 billion in revenue to the state of New Mexico each year. We have as much of a stake in our state's education system as anyone, including educators. Our goal is to be a part of the dialogue instead of trying to silence legitimate stakeholders.
        The Chamber agrees that many schools are likely underfunded. The Chamber agrees that the simplified basic funding formula as proposed appears to have identified the appropriate factors to achieve an equitable distribution of funding. But we disagree with proponents that the funds raised will in all instances be specifically used to address those factors.
        A logical prerequisite to changing the formula and increasing funding is a clear understanding of how school districts currently spend their funds. Twenty-three school districts missed the November deadline for submitting the audits that could shed some light on that question. Given today's difficult economy, why would we want to support increases in property and income taxes to provide another $350 million to schools when we don't know how they spent the money we already gave them?
        Finally, we are concerned that the legislation has no hard linkage between increased funding and improvement in educational outcomes. It is critical to ensure that more accountability goes along with more money, that both rewards and consequences are tied to performance.
        We have to address the high dropout rate in New Mexico. Education Week reported in October that New Mexico's Hispanic dropout rate is 50.6 percent, the Native American dropout rate is 54.7 percent, the African-American dropout rate is 47.9 percent and the anglo dropout rate is 35.8 percent. This is intolerable.
        Any funds whether current or new should be directed through a "bottom up" approach to identify the problems for each student that could lead to that child dropping out of school, then address those problems. Whatever prevents students from learning and graduating must be fixed.
        We expressed concerns about the proposal's lack of accountability during the 2008 session and were assured that we would be able to participate in revising the accountability provisions during the interim period. Instead we were shut out of that process and, after the fact, simply shown a bill that had been rewritten without any business participation.
        The Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and the business community it represents have been deeply involved in education for more than 10 years. The economy of this state can grow only if New Mexico is a place where businesses want to locate and people want to raise their families. We know that an education system that educates every child to world-class levels regardless of socio-economic status is absolutely necessary for this to occur. And we will not be silenced.
        Don Chalmers is chairman of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce. Terri L. Cole is the Chamber's president and CEO.