Commentary: Albuquerque – Ellen Bernstein, President of the Albuquerque Teachers Federation just released the following statement to her members in response to the changes in the New Mexico teacher evaluation system:
"Once again the Governor of New Mexico tries to divert our attention away from the real issue—the state is broke and our public schools are anticipating yet another deep cut to an already decimated district budget.
The press conference announcing cosmetic changes to a deeply flawed teacher evaluation was a ruse. Of course, a defective evaluation formula will not produce reliability or validity at any percentage. And any arbitrary cap on contractually provided sick leave days is a continued denial of reality.
The Governor does not get any brownie points from teachers for hiding behind political theater and fake compromise. Does Susana really care about teachers, students and public education? If she did, she would prove it by signing the budget and the tax package that goes with it and stop torturing us with a slow death of a thousand cuts."