3-09 Legislature

WED, 3-9-11


SANTA FE - The New Mexico Legislature finally is beginning to act like its old self. The House passed a budget bill on a 35-34 vote, two weeks after its planned mid-session action.
The bill contained the extra revenue from a $45 million cap on film industry rebates negotiated the weekend before between House Speaker Ben Lujan and Republican leaders.
The film rebate cap was seen as a loss for Speaker Lujan but it still wasn't enough to get Republican votes for the budget bill. The Democratic hope is that it will be enough to get Gov. Susana Martinez's signature on the budget.
The votes on the budget and film rebate cap were accompanied by hours of rancorous debate. At one point, House Republican whip Don Bratton of Hobbs called a fellow House member a liar for noting that the oil and gas industry receives bigger tax breaks than the film industry,
Much of the acrimony centered around comparison of tax breaks and which industries are using scare tactics to keep their good deals. The truth is that all sides of every tax break issue use scare tactics - usually either the threat to move to another state or to go out of business.
Movies and TV are highly mobile operations. They have been known to pick up band move to another state during a shoot if they get a sweeter deal elsewhere. The oil industry isn't as mobile. It has to drill where the oil is.
Legislative efforts to prevent national corporations from declaring New Mexico profits in states with lower corporate tax also have been met with threats to move. But it is unlikely a Wal-Mart is going to miss out on a good market just because of a slightly higher tax. It has stores in every state.
Plenty of animosity also came to the fore over the effort to take drivers licenses away from illegal aliens. The subject is a top priority of Gov. Martinez but the bill was killed on a tabling motion in a House Committee.
Rep. Andy Nunez, who became an independent at the beginning of this session, was successful in convincing the House to pull the bill out of committee and onto the floor for debate. The process is known as "blasting" a bill out of committee.
It is attempted once or twice almost every session but seldom is successful because it usually is a move by the minority party and the vote almost always is along party lines. So why waste time trying? Usually it is a case of wanting to get everyone on record concerning a controversial issue that might come in handy during the next election
Taking drivers' licenses from illegal aliens has been the number one issue for Gov. Martinez this session. She has paid for radio ads and automated phone calls during the session on the issue. Getting Democrats on record in marginal districts can be good campaign fodder.
Nunez, who was elected as a Democrat, was accused by Democrats of following orders from our Republican governor. Nunez insisted it was his own idea.
"Dangerous" is a term that has been thrown around by both sides on the drivers' license issue. Democrats warned House members that blasting a bill out of committee sets a dangerous precedent by weakening the status of committees.
Gov. Martinez claims aliens with driver's licenses are dangerous. Rep. Eleanor Chavez, of Albuquerque, counters that Gov. Martinez is dangerous. It's just another example of the hyperbole floating around this session.
At this point, it appears the heat will be on for the remainder of the session. The controversial bills now are in the Senate, which until this year had been the more conservative and volatile of the two houses. Now, with the turmoil in the House, it appears the Senate may seem more liberal and stable.

3=09 Legislature

WED, 3-9-11


SANTA FE - The New Mexico Legislature finally is beginning to act like its old self. The House passed a budget bill on a 35-34 vote, two weeks after its planned mid-session action.
The bill contained the extra revenue from a $45 million cap on film industry rebates negotiated the weekend before between House Speaker Ben Lujan and Republican leaders.
The film rebate cap was seen as a loss for Speaker Lujan but it still wasn't enough to get Republican votes for the budget bill. The Democratic hope is that it will be enough to get Gov. Susana Martinez's signature on the budget.
The votes on the budget and film rebate cap were accompanied by hours of rancorous debate. At one point, House Republican whip Don Bratton of Hobbs called a fellow House member a liar for noting that the oil and gas industry receives bigger tax breaks than the film industry,
Much of the acrimony centered around comparison of tax breaks and which industries are using scare tactics to keep their good deals. The truth is that all sides of every tax break issue use scare tactics - usually either the threat to move to another state or to go out of business.
Movies and TV are highly mobile operations. They have been known to pick up band move to another state during a shoot if they get a sweeter deal elsewhere. The oil industry isn't as mobile. It has to drill where the oil is.
Legislative efforts to prevent national corporations from declaring New Mexico profits in states with lower corporate tax also have been met with threats to move. But it is unlikely a Wal-Mart is going to miss out on a good market just because of a slightly higher tax. It has stores in every state.
Plenty of animosity also came to the fore over the effort to take drivers licenses away from illegal aliens. The subject is a top priority of Gov. Martinez but the bill was killed on a tabling motion in a House Committee.
Rep. Andy Nunez, who became an independent at the beginning of this session, was successful in convincing the House to pull the bill out of committee and onto the floor for debate. The process is known as "blasting" a bill out of committee.
It is attempted once or twice almost every session but seldom is successful because it usually is a move by the minority party and the vote almost always is along party lines. So why waste time trying? Usually it is a case of wanting to get everyone on record concerning a controversial issue that might come in handy during the next election
Taking drivers' licenses from illegal aliens has been the number one issue for Gov. Martinez this session. She has paid for radio ads and automated phone calls during the session on the issue. Getting Democrats on record in marginal districts can be good campaign fodder.
Nunez, who was elected as a Democrat, was accused by Democrats of following orders from our Republican governor. Nunez insisted it was his own idea.
"Dangerous" is a term that has been thrown around by both sides on the drivers' license issue. Democrats warned House members that blasting a bill out of committee sets a dangerous precedent by weakening the status of committees.
Gov. Martinez claims aliens with driver's licenses are dangerous. Rep. Eleanor Chavez, of Albuquerque, counters that Gov. Martinez is dangerous. It's just another example of the hyperbole floating around this session.
At this point, it appears the heat will be on for the remainder of the session. The controversial bills now are in the Senate, which until this year had been the more conservative and volatile of the two houses. Now, with the turmoil in the House, it appears the Senate may seem more liberal and stable.

3-21 Arizany

MON, 3-21-11

PHOENIX – If you've ever had misgivings about the New Mexico Legislature, here's a look at the Arizona Legislature that might make you feel better.
Arizona is a little over halfway through its legislative session – maybe. If they don't finish in time, they just keep going or they start calling special sessions. As in New Mexico, the budget hasn't been discussed much. It's just a matter of lining up the votes behind the scenes and getting it passed.
The budget is important, of course, but other matters are even more important – such as which federal laws to follow and which to ignore. Such a measure has passed the Arizona Senate and is being considered by the House. The bill would establish a Joint Committee on Nullification of Federal Laws to recommend which statutes, mandates and executive orders the state wants to not recognize.
Another approach to skirting federal law is to enter into compacts with other states on controversial issues. Interstate compacts do exist in the areas of water regulation, waste disposal and power use. The compacts require federal approval, which has been granted in over 200 instances but not in situations such as immigration and health care, which are Arizona's biggest concerns.
And while Arizona searches for ways to exert its state sovereignty over the federal government, it also looks for ways to take all power possible from local governments. I have just been perusing a weekly report from the Arizona League of Cities and Towns.
Almost all its legislative priorities involve fighting off efforts by the Legislature to take awa.y local powers. In contrast, reports from the New Mexico Municipal League are filled with proactive initiatives.
Some of those state mandates to local governments include a bill to require higher education institutions to allow guns on campus. The bill has passed the state Senate. Another measure would allow guns in public establishments and events, including ball games. It also has passed the Senate.
The Arizona Senate is making quite a name for itself; It also has passed a bill to make the Colt Single Action Revolver the official state gun. The bill was pushed hard by Colt lobbyists. It would make Arizona the first state with an official gun and possibly the first state to award a commercial enterprise official recognition.

Also passing the Arizona Senate is a bill proposing to create an official state Tea Party license plate. Arizona has over 80 state license plates to benefit charities. This would be the first plate to benefit an organization other than a charity.
The Arizona Senate is making a name for itself in the game of creative lawmaking. These bills still have to pass the House and be signed by the governor but since all of them are controlled by the same party, there is a chance some of them may become law.
The impetus for much of this creativity comes from Senate President Russell Pearce, a Mesa Republican. In Arizona, the Senate president is not the lieutenant governor. Arizona doesn't have such an office. The Senate president has all the powers of a House speaker.
Sen. Pearce rules with an iron hand and sometimes is referred to as Gov. Pearce. He has, at least temporarily saved the political life of Scott Bundgaard, the majority leader of the state Senate. Bundgaard and his girlfriend got in a fist fight on the side of a downtown Phoenix freeway. The police arrived to find that both of them had landed some good punches.
The girl friend was arrested and taken to jail. Bundgaard invoked legislative immunity and went home. Many of his fellow lawmakers called for his ouster, at least as majority leader. A majority of Senate Republicans were said to want him to step down as their floor leader. But after a caucus presided over by Pearce, Bundgaard retained his leadership position, at least for now.

3-23 sine die

WED, 3-23-11

SANTA FE – What a change of pace. The dynamics of the 2011 Legislature were different from the previous eight years in almost every way possible.
A new governor can be expected to be different from the previous governor but Gov. Susana Martinez made the same promise of "bold change," the same promise Gov. Bill Richardson made when he took office.
Who knew that Martinez's bold change meant going from a governor that attempted too much to one who has attempted almost nothing. Martinez's one big change involved taking driver's licenses from illegal aliens. She invested leftover campaign funds in robocalls and radio ads to sell the idea.
Lawmakers were hugely unimpressed. They are not accustomed to governors who mess with constituents in their legislative district. They want to be treated as fellow elected officials and dealt with face-to-face. But face-to-face contact with legislators or anyone else has not been Martinez's style thus far.
Consequently Martinez only got small parts of her meager legislative proposals. She got a watered down version of her Katie's Law changes involving DNA from felons. She got one of three education changes she sought -- the one that will give letter grades to schools.
She got a $50 million cap on tax credits for any one film project. She had wanted to lower the rebate from 25 percent to 15 percent. Neither she nor the film industry liked the compromise. But she refused to meet with top Hollywood executives who twice traveled to Santa Fe with alternatives they felt would be beneficial to both sides.
As the session wound down last Friday night, both houses sent up a flurry of bills to the governor. They did not include taking driver's licenses from illegal aliens, a ban on social promotions, merit pay for teachers and administrators, a reinstatement of the death penalty or photo identification at polling places.
Most of Saturday morning was spent with filibusters by Republicans upset about the sudden death of many of their favorite issues.
It wasn't an outstanding session. The best that can be said is that not a lot of bad legislation was passed. Budget problems were kicked a little further down the road. No noticeable job-creating legislation was passed.
The film industry says the $50 million cap on rebates will be a job killer. We'll have to wait and see on that. Some states lowered their film incentives but others raised or reinstated theirs. The bottom line is that no one has any idea what the best formula might be. Legislation did pass requiring the state Taxation and Revenue Department to analyze receipts and expenditures. Maybe next year we can have an intelligent discussion.
The budget deficit was plugged with about $150 million, mostly from public employee benefit contributions. There was little talk of the $200 million to $450 million gap mentioned during last year's campaigns.
Lawmakers complained that they didn't have all the information they needed for budget decisions. They passed a bill requesting more information on contracts the executive branch signs. The bill became Gov. Martinez's first veto. Gov. Bill Richardson vetoed the same bill last year amid cries of political cover ups.
Martinez has until April 8 to act on bills sent to her the last three days of the session. Maybe those signings and vetoes will give a better picture of her bold program. One of the other evidences of Martinez's lack of communication during the legislative session involved bills sent to executive departments requesting fiscal impact reports.
Normally state employees have a good idea of where the governor stands on all bills being considered by the Legislature. Gov. Richardson used to put a code in the lower left hand corner of the bills he had introduced. But this year, state employees and their department heads had no idea whether they might be trashing a bill the governor liked or saying good things about a bill she didn't want.

3-28

MON, 3-28-11

SANTA FE – Expect some high-level personnel changes in state government now that the Legislature has adjourned.
New Gov. Susana Martinez didn't have time to get all of former Gov. Bill Richardson's political appointees replaced before the Legislature convened so she let some of them know they would remain in their jobs until after the legislative session. In other cases she promoted top-ranking classified employees into positions such as division directorships on a temporary basis.
Reportedly Gov. Martinez and her cabinet secretaries are sufficiently pleased with the jobs these employees are performing that some of them may assume the positions permanently even though they will loose the protections of the state Personnel Act.
For those few political appointees Martinez replaces with classified employees, she reduces the large number of exempt employees Richardson appointed during his term. That number exceeded 500 at one point. Martinez has said she intends to get that number down into the 300s.
Reports are coming in from state employees expressing confidence in their new bosses and describing them as bright and upfront about their plans. That confidence hasn't extended to the Senate Rules Committee in all cases.
Some of Gov. Martinez's more high profile cabinet appointments have yet to be confirmed by the state Senate. Secretary of Education designate Hanna Skandera came into office amid predictions by Gov. Martinez that she would be the savior of New Mexico's low-ranking education system.
Some senators were unimpressed, noting that Skandera doesn't have an education degree and hasn't ever been a classroom teacher or administrator. Led by Senate majority leader Michael Sanchez, the Senate held off on her confirmation and gave her only one of the package of three bills she said she needed to get New Mexico moving in the right direction.
The education bill making it all the way through the Legislature calls for letter grading of schools. Failing to pass the Legislature was a merit pay system for teachers and administrators and a bill requiring passage of a reading test before leaving third grade.
Grading schools A-F stirs some controversy but not to the extent that merit pay and social promotion have caused over the years. Using test scores as a primary basis of merit pay has been controversial ever since before my wife Jeanette and I taught 50 years ago.
New York tried it and it led to what then was called "teaching to the test." Lately it has been called just plain old cheating. Subjective evaluations by principals and central office administrators also have been controversial. The problem is how to do it fairly.
Eliminating social promotion sounds like a slam dunk. Who wouldn't be for that? When Jeanette taught second grade, she held several students back. But she did it only after intensive conversations with the parents. It usually was a matter of feeling the child hadn't reached a sufficient level of maturity to move up.
We and our son's kindergarten teacher held him out of first grade 33 years ago because a premature birth technically put him a year ahead in school but he really wasn't ready.
When the problem is insufficient reading skills, however, corrective measures should begin long before the end of the third grade, which was the solution of this year's legislation. Keeping nine-year-olds in third grade labels them and removes them for their social group, both of which make dropping out of school a much greater likelihood. It also costs more to keep students in school another year.
So the Senate wasn't without reason for not approving the bills.
Jon Barela, Martinez's nominee for secretary of the Economic Development Department, also was not confirmed. The action is not totally uncommon for nominees with political ambitions. Barela was the GOP candidate for Congress last year and has been mentioned as a future political candidate.
Barela and Skandera may be approved at some later date but appointees have been known to dangle for a long time.

3-14 Beware of geezers

MON, 3-14-11


SANTA FE – Hey. You young whippersnappers better be careful who you're picking on. We old geezers still have plenty of political muscle.
Two young lawmakers have introduced legislation to deprive senior citizens of their seat on the governor's cabinet and to make it tougher to get driver's licenses.
Rep. Al Park has introduced House Bill 189 to merge the Department of Aging and Long-Term Services into the Human Services Department. It takes away our seat at the table when top New Mexico officials are discussing important matters. Don't want our opinion, huh? We still have some pretty good ideas.
And Sen. Peter Wirth has introduced Senate Bill 125 to make us take a slew of additional tests when we renew our driver's licenses when we turn 75. He wants the Department of Motor Vehicles to test our reflexes, reaction times, motor skills, coordination and possibly other tests of our physical and mental abilities.
Sen. Wirth's idea is to increase the safety of our roads. But I can tell you there are a whole lot of other steps lawmakers can take to make our roads safer that don't involve more tests for the group of people who already are the safest on the road.
We may drive slower but that's usually because we are driving the speed limit. When you read about horrible auto wrecks, they usually don't involve old folks. It's much more likely to be someone who has 10 drunken driving violations on his record already. Do something about the judicial system to correct that before coming after us.
Or how about all those inattentive drivers who are gawking at something on the side of the road, tuning their radio, changing a CD, or worst of all – texting. Next to drunk driving, texting is the most dangerous thing on the road. Old folks don't do a lot of texting.
There is no word on who will be administering the tests if the measure passes. But thses tests take more than a entry level clerk to administer. They sound more like tests a person is administered in a doctor's office.
Those of us who have endured the long waits in Motor Vehicle Department offices know this extra work can't be done without hiring additional employees with health diagnostic training.
And what about the problem of unequal treatment? We may decide that you had better test everyone since seniors already are the safest drivers on the road. Oh, we may drive a little slower but that usually is because we are driving the speed limit.
This may be one of those bills we really don't have to worry about too much.






The Legislature contains many of our fellow senior citizens, who may not be too impressed with Sen. Wirth's thinking.
And selling the whole idea to senior voters next year may not be too easy either. Besides being the safest drivers on the road, we're also the most frequent voters.
While we're talking about us old folks, I saw quite a few of them on the basketball court for the annual house-Senate game recently. Some of those folks have stayed in very good shape.
The lawmakers put on a very impressive show, with Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino demonstrating that even guys almost my age can still get up and down the court.
The games have livened up over the years. University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University, a;pmg woth Santa Fe High School cheerleaders added to the fun, along with former NMSU and Illinois University coach Lou Henson coaching the House and UNM football coach Mike Locksley coaching the Senate.
Coach Locksley's luck hasn't changed since football season. The Senate, which won last year's game, managed to lose this year.
It is nice to see womenbreak into the lineups of the House-Senate game. Rep. Rhonda King, a high school star at Moriarty, displayed her skills for the fans.

3-16legislature

WED, 3-16-11

SANTA FE -- it appears little will come of this session. Usually during the final week of the session, things start coming together and much legislation passes.
But this session can only be described as lethargic with occasional outbursts of emotions. This isn't a recipe for the bold action Gov.-elect Susana Martinez promised. The truth is that New Mexico never has seen the bold action it experienced during the eight years of the Richardson administration.
Any other governor pales in comparison. Had Martinez followed any other governor, we might not have noticed much difference. But for eight years, Richardson controlled the action. There weren't any other real leaders.
House Speaker Ben Lujan brought the House along, supporting Richardson's initiatives. The Senate fought him but majority floor leader Michael Sanchez always was looking over his shoulder to be sure he was leading the majority of his troops in the direction they wanted to go.
So now lawmakers are left without anyone of the Manny Aragon, Raymond Sanchez, Aubrey Dunn or John Mershon variety who would pick up the cudgel and say, Here's what we're going to do." It's not that today's leaders are not capable of such actions. It's just that they aren't accustomed to doing it since Gov. Richardson was such a powerful force that he called all the signals.
One major power Richardson used to full advantage was his line-item veto authority. He could threaten to veto the pork projects of any recalcitrant lawmaker. Gov. Martinez has said she will veto all pork . That's not a bad idea from a public policy standpoint but it weakens her hand significantly.
Of course, accomplishing nothing isn't too bad an idea either. The only bill that has to pass is the budget measure. Very little else has. With a week left in the session, only one bill had reached the governor's desk. That was the so-called "feed bill" that funds the Legislature.
Former Gov. Bruce King who vetoed many a bill in his time, always insisted the Legislature passes far too many bills anyway. He said many of the bills he passed early in his legislative career, he later introduced measures to repeal.
Very little is coming out of the governor's office other than law enforcement messages. Many reports are coming in about the difficulty of gaining access to the governor herself. Everything is being filtered through top aides.
During the 2010 political campaigns, gubernatorial and legislative candidates said their top priority was jobs, jobs, jobs. We're not hearing about jobs now. Neither Gov. Martinez nor legislators are talking about what they promised would be their top priority. No one took the leadership.
Consequently we now have a leadership vacuum. Or so it seems. It is possible that Gov. Martinez – or someone else – is quietly making major changes. Deep beneath the surface, agency regulations may be loosening. Maybe they are being overlooked or not being enforced. If so, we aren't getting the transparent government we were promised.
I'm getting reports that new managers are calling employees into their offices and informing them that they know everyone's party registration and who they supported for governor last year. And they are lowering salaries of everyone they can.
So maybe the bold initiatives the new governor promised were in the areas of law enforcement and taking driver's licenses from illegal aliens. In that case, it doesn't look like a very successful session. The driver's license bill died twice. But it did get debated, sometimes in a very rancorous manner.
Former state GOP chairman John Dendahl long tried to get Martinez to run for attorney general. It appears he had the right idea.
And the $450 million deficit the governor complained about quietly disappeared. Less that $200 million seems to have taken care of the problem. Or did we just kick the can a little farther down the road?

3-18 exceptionalism

FRI, 3-18-11

SANTA FE – America had better become accustomed to not being the world leader in every category that is important. American exceptionalism is just too much of a bother. It's just not the American way anymore.
During the first 200 years of our nation's growth, we were busy conquering frontiers, physical and scientific. No effort, no sacrifice was too great. We showed the world. And then we got comfortable.
Our attention turned to living the good life enjoying the fruits of our labors and the sacrifices of those who went before us. The discovery of oil beneath our lands made life even easier. We could kick back and relax.
Then people in other nations decided they wanted our lifestyle. The elec tronic communications systems we invented made the world flat, as they say, so other peoples of the world had equal access to our knowledge. And with great effort and sacrifice, they brought themselves up to our level. And then they kept going.
Read about Chinese moms and how they push their children to the breaking point to master a subject or talent. It is no fun until something is mastered, Then it is joyous. Most American youth will never know that joy. It takes too much work. It takes too much of their parents' time.
Another component of our world leadership was that we produced all the oil we needed. Now we buy most of it from countries with whom we are not very friendly. If they were to ever cut it off, our economy would tank.
Many alternatives can be developed. But every alternative is a bother. We could drill at home. But no one wants an oil well near them or a gas well. They don't want them near wildlife or scenic beauty. They don't want them off shore because a leak could harm fish or beaches.
Water power works well for generating energy but no one likes the transmission lines. There's always wind power but people don't want a windmill within sight. And solar collectors are ugly, especially if your neighbor puts one up.
Don't even bother talking about nuclear energy. We stopped that after the Three-Mile Island partial meltdown over 30 years ago while the rest of the world kept moving. The Japanese disaster will halt any plans we were making in that arena but the rest of the world will keep moving.
New Mexico has an abundance of nearly all these energy sources. We haven't even mentioned coal. Unfortunately we won't be able to take advantage for any of them for our economy because they're too bothersome. So is getting all New Mexicans connected to the Internet because of protests that WiFi puts something in the air that makes them sick.
Nearly all of us want a strong national defense. We also don't want to lose our air bases. But don't let Air Force pilots develop their skills anywhere near us because the occasional noise is unpleasant.
So there you have it. It is a recipe for the fall of the American empire. Is there any way to turn it around? Yes, but it will take a big change in the current American character. It means pulling together the polarized sides that determine current American politics.
It means finding a way to utilize a much greater percentage of our resources, with minimal impact on our environment and creature comforts. It means sitting down at a table and talking rather than firing away with television commercials and court suits.
Technology is improving. There may never be such a thing as clean energy but we should continue working toward it in every way possible. It means industry may not enjoy profits as big as it would like and it means that life may not be as enjoyable as we'd like.
At this point, bringing everyone together any time soon is only a dream. What will it take to make that dream come true?

3-25

colunm

MON, 3-28-11

SANTA FE – Expect some high-level personnel changes in state government now that the Legislature has adjourned.
New Gov. Susana Martinez didn't have time to get all of former Gov. Bill Richardson's political appointees replaced before the Legislature convened so she let some of them know they would remain in their jobs until after the legislative session. In other cases she promoted top-ranking classified employees into positions such as division directorships on a temporary basis.
Reportedly Gov. Martinez and her cabinet secretaries are sufficiently pleased with the jobs these employees are performing that some of them may assume the positions permanently even though they will loose the protections of the state Personnel Act.
For those few political appointees Martinez replaces with classified employees, she reduces the large number of exempt employees Richardson appointed during his term. That number exceeded 500 at one point. Martinez has said she intends to get that number down into the 300s.
Reports are coming in from state employees expressing confidence in their new bosses and describing them as bright and upfront about their plans. That confidence hasn't extended to the Senate Rules Committee in all cases.
Some of Gov. Martinez's more high profile cabinet appointments have yet to be confirmed by the state Senate. Secretary of Education designate Hanna Skandera came into office amid predictions by Gov. Martinez that she would be the savior of New Mexico's low-ranking education system.
Some senators were unimpressed, noting that Skandera doesn't have an education degree and hasn't ever been a classroom teacher or administrator. Led by Senate majority leader Michael Sanchez, the Senate held off on her confirmation and gave her only one of the package of three bills she said she needed to get New Mexico moving in the right direction.
The education bill making it all the way through the Legislature calls for letter grading of schools. Failing to pass the Legislature was a merit pay system for teachers and administrators and a bill requiring passage of a reading test before leaving third grade.
Grading schools A-F stirs some controversy but not to the extent that merit pay and social promotion have caused over the years. Using test scores as a primary basis of merit pay has been controversial ever since before my wife Jeanette and I taught 50 years ago.
New York tried it and it led to what then was called "teaching to the test." Lately it has been called just plain old cheating. Subjective evaluations by principals and central office administrators also have been controversial. The problem is how to do it fairly.
Eliminating social promotion sounds like a slam dunk. Who wouldn't be for that? When Jeanette taught second grade, she held several students back. But she did it only after intensive conversations with the parents. It usually was a matter of feeling the child hadn't reached a sufficient level of maturity to move up.
We and our son's kindergarten teacher held him out of first grade 33 years ago because a premature birth technically put him a year ahead in school but he really wasn't ready.
When the problem is insufficient reading skills, however, corrective measures should begin long before the end of the third grade, which was the solution of this year's legislation. Keeping nine-year-olds in third grade labels them and removes them for their social group, both of which make dropping out of school a much greater likelihood. It also costs more to keep students in school another year.
So the Senate wasn't without reason for not approving the bills.
Jon Barela, Martinez's nominee for secretary of the Economic Development Department, also was not confirmed. The action is not totally uncommon for nominees with political ambitions. Barela was the GOP candidate for Congress last year and has been mentioned as a future political candidate.
Barela and Skandera may be approved at some later date but appointees have been known to dangle for a long time.

3-28 column

Hope this works

3-11 Not Willing to Do What It Takes

FRI, 3-11-11

SANTA FE - The United States never again will be a world leader in education. Our culture, traditions and the American way will preclude it from happening again.
It's a bitter pill to swallow but we must admit that our society is unwilling to do what it takes to be first again - or anywhere near it.
The major component of our decline began around the middle of the past century when psychologists decided children should have fun and enjoy their childhood.
Contrast that with the trip newswoman Diane Sawyer took to China recently. Many of us saw her on the newscast she anchors asking a classroom of Chinese students what they liked least about school.
The answer was "the pressure." Then Sawyer asked what the children liked most about school. Again, the answer was "the pressure."
The responses were too choreographed to have been unrehearsed. But the message likely was very accurate. Read about Chinese tiger moms and learn that Chinese children don't like pressure any better than American children but when the pressure forces them to master a subject or activity, it is a source of lifelong joy.
We've heard about the high teen suicide rate in Japan and the same may be true in China because of the pressures put on their youth. But it's not going to make Asians less demanding of their children.
One reason for Chinese pressure on their children is that they only are allowed one per family in order to solve the country's overpopulation problem. With only one child , all the parents' energy goes toward making that child the best.
Contrast that with American culture. We have family planning clinics but part of America is opposed, sometimes violently, to such operations. A family with many children has much less time to spend with each child. And even that time is diluted further by both parents having to work extra jobs to support a large family.
China isn't even the leading example of pressure put on students to excel in school. Singapore pulled itself up from one of the poorest economies in the world to one of the top through installing perhaps the most rigorous of education systems anywhere. Schools are ranked by quality as are children. Students are ranked from number one on down and everyone knows their ranking. Singapore educators insist it doesn't cause self-esteem problems. It merely is a message to students to try harder.
Students in poor countries know that education is their only way out. American middle class students figure they will wind up at least as well as their parents. As a result, they aren't as likely to take the hardest courses.
Under Gov. Susana Martinez, New Mexico students may see some tougher standards. Her Education Department designee wants to retain third grade students who can't pass a national reading test. And schools will be given letter grades A through F. We'll see if they become law.
Third grade retention passed the House 62-5 last week so it appears to have a good chance of becoming law. The idea is appealing. It was appealing 50 years ago when I taught.
We held students back occasionally but it was based on more than reading scores. Most often the major component of our decisions was the maturity level of the child and whether we felt another year would do the trick.
Social promotion always has been controversial. Parents have to be a part of the decision-making process throughout the year. If it is sprung on them at the end of the year, parents almost always veto retention.
Of course, if parents are involved throughout the year, their child usually improves reading skills through more parental support and private tutoring.
But too many parents, even if they are financially and educationally able to give their child extra help, tend to ignore the problem and blame the school and the bad teacher.

 

3-9 Legislature Livens Up

WED, 3-9-11

SANTA FE - The New Mexico Legislature finally is beginning to act like its old self. The House passed a budget bill on a 35-34 vote, two weeks after its planned mid-session action.
The bill contained the extra revenue from a $45 million cap on film industry rebates negotiated the weekend before between House Speaker Ben Lujan and Republican leaders.
The film rebate cap was seen as a loss for Speaker Lujan but it still wasn't enough to get Republican votes for the budget bill. The Democratic hope is that it will be enough to get Gov. Susana Martinez's signature on the budget.
The votes on the budget and film rebate cap were accompanied by hours of rancorous debate. At one point, House Republican whip Don Bratton of Hobbs called a fellow House member a liar for noting that the oil and gas industry receives bigger tax breaks than the film industry,
Much of the acrimony centered around comparison of tax breaks and which industries are using scare tactics to keep their good deals. The truth is that all sides of every tax break issue use scare tactics - usually either the threat to move to another state or to go out of business.
Movies and TV are highly mobile operations. They have been known to pick up band move to another state during a shoot if they get a sweeter deal elsewhere. The oil industry isn't as mobile. It has to drill where the oil is.
Legislative efforts to prevent national corporations from declaring New Mexico profits in states with lower corporate tax also have been met with threats to move. But it is unlikely a Wal-Mart is going to miss out on a good market just because of a slightly higher tax. It has stores in every state.
Plenty of animosity also came to the fore over the effort to take drivers licenses away from illegal aliens. The subject is a top priority of Gov. Martinez but the bill was killed on a tabling motion in a House Committee.
Rep. Andy Nunez, who became an independent at the beginning of this session, was successful in convincing the House to pull the bill out of committee and onto the floor for debate. The process is known as "blasting" a bill out of committee.
It is attempted once or twice almost every session but seldom is successful because it usually is a move by the minority party and the vote almost always is along party lines. So why waste time trying? Usually it is a case of wanting to get everyone on record concerning a controversial issue that might come in handy during the next election
Taking drivers' licenses from illegal aliens has been the number one issue for Gov. Martinez this session. She has paid for radio ads and automated phone calls during the session on the issue. Getting Democrats on record in marginal districts can be good campaign fodder.
Nunez, who was elected as a Democrat, was accused by Democrats of following orders from our Republican governor. Nunez insisted it was his own idea.
"Dangerous" is a term that has been thrown around by both sides on the drivers' license issue. Democrats warned House members that blasting a bill out of committee sets a dangerous precedent by weakening the status of committees.
Gov. Martinez claims aliens with driver's licenses are dangerous. Rep. Eleanor Chavez, of Albuquerque, counters that Gov. Martinez is dangerous. It's just another example of the hyperbole floating around this session.
At this point, it appears the heat will be on for the remainder of the session. The controversial bills now are in the Senate, which until this year had been the more conservative and volatile of the two houses. Now, with the turmoil in the House, it appears the Senate may seem more liberal and stable.

 

3-7 Good News on Economic Development Front

By JAY MILLER
Syndicated Columnist

SANTA FE -- We finally have some good news on two major economic development initiatives that appeared in serious danger with the new administration of Gov. Susana Martinez.
The Senate unanimously passed legislation to tighten rules concerning film tax rebates and to collect information necessary to assess whether the program is working to New Mexico's benefit.
The measure does not address the size of the rebate or put a cap on the amount the state pays out. To do so without knowing the data would be a disservice to both the state and the film industry, senators determined.
The future of Senate Bill 44 is a complete unknown since both the House and governor have completely different ideas. But it does deliver the message that one body of the Legislature has made a firm decision.
The Senate's decision seems reasonable and it marks one of the few times in which that body has been in unanimous agreement on any major issue.
The other good news concerns the spaceport. And it is two-fold. First, Gov. Martinez has appointed a spaceport director with seemingly outstanding qualifications, and second, some Virgin Galactic flights will carry scientists performing experiements..
Christine Anderson, the new spaceport director has 30 years experience in space technology with the Air Force, mostly at Kirtland Air Force Base.
She was the founding director of the Air Force Space Vehicles Directorate. She headed the Space technology Directorate. And she was director of the Military Satellite Communications program.
Anderson says she looks forward to ensuring the spaceport is developed into an economic engine that can drive development and job creation in New Mexico. Her appointment may be an indication that Gov. Martinez is more excited about the spaceport than she has appeared to be.
This column has reported misgivings about whether our new governor wants to junk any programs with former Gov. Bill Richardson's footprint on them.
Let's hope Anderson's appointment is an indication that Martinez is deciding her best course of action is to lead both programs in bold new directions with an even bigger footprint than Richardson's.
The other piece of good news is that the Southwest Research Institute has inked a deal with Virgin Galactic for numerous research flights.
In some cases, all six passengers will be researchers working together in an "out-of-seat" micro-gravity environment. Evidently Virgin Galactic isn't as tacky as airlines are about passengers leaving their seats.
According to the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, the scientific community is beginning to realize it can put people and payloads into space at a much lower cost and achieve better results than with old-style automated experiments.
So as we said in another column recently, the suborbital space market is not just for well-heeled tourists to take joy rides. It soon will be a means for routine field work in scientific research.
Still another good sign is President Barack Obama's decision several months ago that NASA will concentrate on deep space exploration while the near-earth market will be left to commercial interests.
With the appointment of Anderson as director of the spaceport, the possibilities increase for New Mexico to get a lion's share of that business through the contacts she has made during the past 30 years.
From all indications, Virgin Galactic, the Spaceport's anchor tenant appears to be sticking firmly with its agreement to fly out of New Mexico despite some discouraging words from our governor.
The only cloud on that horizon is some information just received that no copy of the 20-year lease agreement signed by Richard Branson has ever been produced for any government agency to review.
Fortunately Virgin Galactic officials still are making very supportive statements about New Mexico's Spaceport America and still appear to be the loyal partner they have been since the beginning.
MON, 3-7-11

JAY MILLER, 3 La Tusa, Santa Fe, NM 87505
(ph) 982-2723, (fax) 984-0982, (e-mail) insidethecapitol@hotmail.com

We'll be in PHX with grandkids for a few weeks. Back April 4. Will have computer and cell: 505-699-9982.