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New Mexico Charter School Power Struggle

  Oversight authority over schools is an ongoing struggle in New Mexico.  The NM Public Education Commission (PEC) used to be strong and supervised education.  Then it was folded into the NM Public Education Department (PED).  State Auditor Balderas recently charged that the PED is not providing adequate independent oversight to charter schools.  The State Legislative Education Study Committee (LESC) Charter Schools Subcommittee is recommending legislation that would separate the two agencies again.  In this report you will find an analysis of NM charter law.

NM charter regulations are reported in the National Alliance for Charter Schools Measuring Up report.  Charter law in New Mexico has limits on charter expansion.  Fifteen charters may be authorized each year with a cap of 75 in five years.  Charters in small school districts may not have more than 10% of the total student enrollment.  For-profit education management firms are not allowed.

Charter schools often get more per student funding than traditional schools because they are eligible for small school funding bonuses.  Some also get special “below the line” non-formula, discretionary funding from the PED Secretary, who is a very active promoter of charter school and the school choice movement.  Each state-authorized charter school now has an assigned liaison from the PED.  The inscrutable A-F school grading often rewards the charters, though no one is quite clear about the factors that go into these grades and perks.

Guess what happens when the state Education Department is a great promoter of charter schools?  In NM, we have two, for-profit private management companies running our statewide online schools:  

K-12 Inc (NM Virtual Academy) and Pearson (NM Connections Academy).  PED overturned the PEC’s denial for authorization of K12 Inc (NM Virtual Academy) which still operates even though the NM Attorney General declared it unconstitutional because the NM Constitution allows no public funding for private schools.  Since K12 Inc operates out of Farmington Municipal Schools, it tries to appear as if it is run by the Farmington board. 

Unlike Florida and some other states, NM does not have vouchers, but it does have some religious-affiliated schools that are masquerading as public charters.  We also have conservative think tanks like the Rio Grande Foundation that are pushing for more charter schools, and their members are on some charter boards.  There is lots of private money behind charter schools.  Some of the ones which are blatantly profiteering are even being investigated by the FBI.

A 2010 report from the NM Legislative Education Study Committee made a number of recommendations for changes in charter authorization and oversight, finance, and academic achievement reports.  The evaluation cited the need to eliminate discretionary funding for charters.  The report also acknowledged that charter school performance was not better than for comparable public schools.  The CREDO 2013 technical report confirmed that charter school students matched with comparable public school students had less growth in reading achievement.

Having a charter school division housed in the PED gives charter schools more power, money, attention, and flexibility than our traditional public schools.  This is not to say there aren’t many excellent charter schools.  Some have provided a great alternative to traditional schools that are failing.  However, it is time that we focus our resources on the masses of our students in our schools. We should not have a system where some get special privileges because they were able to get into charter schools that have more funding, less testing, and curricular autonomy.  We need to increase the funding formula for all schools so that students of all kinds can achieve success. Let’s support and improve all schools in New Mexico so all kids can succeed.

Separating the PEC from the PED will help address some of the oversight issues, but NM must do much more to address the inequities and inadequacy of providing all public school students with the equal and sufficient education our Constitution mandates.

Meredith Machen, Ph.D.,  President of the League of Women Voters of New Mexico and its Education Chair, was an educator for 38 years