Teachers union petition denied

The state Supreme Court has denied a petition from teacher unions, which had asked to court to strike down the state’s new teacher evaluation system on the basis that it violated the separation of powers in the state Constitution. 

After two attempts to overhaul the teacher evaluation system through legislation, the Public Education Department instead wrote administrative rules that required teacher evaluations to be based in part on student test score improvement.

 The state chapter of the American Federation of Teachers and its Albuquerque chapter argued that changes constitute a major policy change, and that policy change is the job of legislators, not executive departments.

Teachers union petition denied