Nonprofit fellow, former teacher warns 'disruption is coming' to education

During the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting this week, American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Robert Pondiscio began his remarks by asking for a show of hands of how many people had attended a geographically zoned district public school.

Almost all the hands in a ballroom at the Albuquerque Convention Center went up.

Pondiscio then asked how many people attended a private school or some other form of school. Around the same number of hands went up.

But the number of attendees who signaled they attended charter school was fewer — and only one hand went up for home schooling, Pondiscio noted.

He said, today, about 40% of children are attending another type of school other than a one in a geographically zoned district.

“That is a remarkable shift that has occurred within the lifetime of everybody in this room,” said Pondiscio, a former New York City teacher and journalist who became an education policy expert. “Our perception of public education is evolving.”

He then told the group, “The forces of disruption have come at last for education,” as they have in other economic sectors.

It was those same exact words Pondiscio, who has no ties to New Mexico, wrote in an Oct. 18 column for the Journal. In his column, Pondiscio said his Wednesday speech at the convention center would allow him to “get the conversation started,” which he did not only in his speech but in a spirited question-and-answer session with attendees. Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Gabriella Blakey and several members of the APS Board of Education attended.

“You could have had anybody (speak at this meeting), but to have someone from the world of education policy says something good about this organization,” Pondiscio said.

Pondiscio elaborated on his “disruption” argument by using the term “peak oil,” which describes the irreversible decline of oil production after reaching its peak rate.

“We have not yet reached ‘peak oil’ — we might not in our lifetime — but we have hit peak public education, peak public school,” Pondiscio said. “There are some, too, who believe it will leave a disaster — and maybe it will.”

There is good reason to be nervous about school-age children when public school ideals are abandoned, he said.

“The relationship between Americans and public schools have never been more in play than it is right now,” Pondiscio said.

Home schooling, charter school and private school attendance have all gone up, he said, while pandemic-era disruptions “broke that habit of schooling for young families.”

Pondiscio also cited chronic absenteeism — when a student misses 10% or more of the school year — as an issue that has hurt public schools nationwide. He said New Mexico had some of the worst rates of chronic absenteeism in the country, which data from The Associated Press and Stanford University found in 2023. Although Pondiscio did not mention it, data from Albuquerque Public Schools showed that 31% of its students were chronically absent in the 2023-2024 school year.

The disruptions lead Pondiscio to believe that by the end of the decade, half of American children “will do something else” for their education other than attend a traditional public school.

Despite disruptions in public education, there is an upside, he said.

“In redefining public education, not as real estate, not as that experience that we all had — a collection of buildings called public schools — the potential is here to usher in a new age of educational dynamism,” Pondiscio said.

He left attendees with a few closing thoughts, including “like it or not, disruption is coming” to education.

“Avoid the temptation to pit private and public entities against each other,” Pondiscio said.

APS school board member Ronalda Tome-Warito, who noted during a discussion with Pondiscio that she is an advocate for children with disabilities, said in an interview following the senior fellow’s speech that she disagrees with many of his views on education.

“Often, when I put his lens to mine, I don’t see all kids fitting in,” Tome-Warito said.

Terri Cole, president and CEO of the Chamber, praised Pondiscio’s insights on education and told the Journal why her group invited the senior fellow to speak.

“He is an insightful author, former public school teacher and journalist, and one of the most innovative thinkers in America today on how to improve education,” Cole wrote in an email prior to Pondiscio’s remarks.

“At the Chamber, we believe our city’s and state’s long-term economic growth hinges, in large part, on our ability to ensure every child has access to a great school and is prepared for college, a career, and life. That’s why we’re so eager to put a spotlight on education reform today at our annual meeting; delivering a great education to New Mexico children is as essential to a child’s success in life as it is to our community’s success economically.”