Education: From Last Place to First
New Mexico ranks last in the country in education. We have no hope of improving and diversifying our economy without improving the education of our children.
My first priority is to tie teachers’ salary increases to the state’s national rankings: a “pay for performance” incentive program. With this plan, teachers could see large pay increases as our national rankings improve. The best way to improve the quality of education for our students and provide pay raises for our educators is to tie both together, in order to create a reinforcing cycle of excellence throughout our education system.
Many of our teachers work extremely hard to educate our children, but are encumbered by bureaucracy and administrative edicts. To ensure transparency, I support funding for school infrastructure that would place cameras in every classroom in the state to allow parents to view live-streaming of classes.
Secondly, I would advocate for the complete elimination of any Critical Race Theory being taught in our pre-K-12 curriculum. Our kids should and must learn American history: the good, the bad, the setbacks, and the wonderful progress we have made in these United States in our quest to form a more perfect union. In our multi-cultural, multi-racial state, there is no excuse to allowing the teaching of hatred and bigotry that judges individuals by the color of their skin. Critical Race theory should be eliminated from the curriculum.
Good education also involves refocusing our curriculum on teaching science and math, in order to prepare our workforce for 21st century jobs in the STEM fields. From the National Laboratories (Sandia and Los Alamos) to the military bases (Cannon AFB, Kirtland AFB, Holloman AFB, and White Sands Missile Range), to our fledgling space launch program anchored by Virgin Galactic, our state has never lacked in leading the way towards a brighter future.
But we are consistently held back by Democrats in power.
New Mexico has some of the brightest minds on the planet living in this state working on many of the toughest national security problems this nation faces; however, often times these positions aren’t filled by our own students and instead have to rely on talent coming into New Mexico from the rest of our great nation. As our students improve scores in Math and Science, we will see more and more of them staying in New Mexico and securing our state’s economy with high technology jobs while actively building our nation’s future.