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New Mexico Teacher Evaluation Lawsuit Delayed Until Next Year

http://nm.aft.org/

Commentary:  On Tuesday, both AFT NM/ATF and PED returned to court to address the ongoing legal battle against the PED evaluation system. Our lawyer proposed that we set a court date ASAP. The PED requested a date for next fall citing their busy schedule as the reason. As a result, the court date is now late October 2017.

While we are relieved to have a final court date set, we are dismayed at the amount of time that our teachers have to wait for the final ruling.

In a statement to the press, ATF President Ellen Bernstein reflected on the current state of our teachers in regards to the evaluation system, “Even though they know they can’t be harmed in their jobs right now, it bothers them in the core of their being, and nothing I can say can take that away…It’s a cloud over everybody.”

AFT NM President Stephanie Ly, said, “It is a shame our educators still don’t have a legitimate evaluation system. The PED’s previous abusive evaluation system was thankfully halted through an injunction by the New Mexico courts, and the PED has yet to create an evaluation system that uniformly and fairly evaluates educators, and have shown no signs to remedy this situation. The PED’s actions are beyond the pale, and it is simply unjust.”

While we await trial, we want to thank our members who sent in their evaluation data to help our case. Remind your colleagues that they may still advance in licensure by completing a dossier; the PED’s arbitrary rating system cannot negatively affect a teacher’s ability to advance thanks to the injunction won by AFT NM/ATF last fall. That injunction will stay in place until a ruling is issued on our case next October.

In Solidarity,

Stephanie Ly