The problem of teen suicide
Education
Criminalizing Disability
Special-needs kids who don’t get help in school are winding up in jail.
Left Behind: Where does the funding go?
New Mexico public schools get most of their budget — around 70 percent — from the state, based on a complex formula that takes into account everything from poverty rates to the number of special needs students. But once districts get that money, they have wide leeway as to how they actually spend it. And […]
Left Behind
QUESTA – When the fire alarm sounded before lunch in November of 2017, the staff at Alta Vista Elementary School knew they had a problem. A 6-year-old boy confined to a wheelchair needed to evacuate with the rest of his class. Unfortunately, the school had never purchased a chair that would let him leave the […]
Who will lead New Mexico’s Public Education Department?
In the coming days, governor-elect Michelle Lujan Grisham will take the first major step to fulfill her sweeping campaign promises on education – appointing a secretary to lead New Mexico’s troubled Public Education Department.
For healthcare, please take a number
Funding cuts, healthcare shortage harm N.M.’s autistic children
Foreign teachers pay dearly to fill jobs in New Mexico
More than 200 foreign teachers are risking their financial security for an opportunity to work in public schools.
Charter schools target New Mexico’s at-risk students
Sara Tafoya never pictured herself as one of New Mexico’s at-risk students. She came from a supportive, college-educated family in Albuquerque, had once earned good grades, and entertained dreams of going to college and becoming a physical therapist.
But in her sophomore year, Tafoya “attracted bad situations,” skipping classes – sometimes for weeks at a time. By the time she found out she was pregnant at age 15, she faced a hurdle that typically derails a girl’s education.
Success by degrees
Adult education can be a path to generational change. But in New Mexico, where it is estimated that a third of the adult population could benefit, only about 3 percent are served.