APS still down 200 teachers, retired teachers filling in as substitutes

From KOB-TV.com - By: Kai Porter, KOB Eyewitness News 4 - ALBUQUERQUE -- Three weeks into the school year, Albuquerque Public Schools still need to hire more than 200 teachers.
     The district says this happens every year, and that despite the shortage, students are still getting the education they deserve.
      A grandparent of an APS student says he isn't surprised the district is still short. "I think we really need to spend more money on our education system," Fook Lee said. "If it's affecting the teachers, what does it pour down to? Kids themselves."
      The district still needs to hire 81 elementary school teachers, 15 middle school teachers, 21 high school teachers and 90 special education teachers.
       "It's not unique to New Mexico, but I do think New Mexico has a hard time competing with other states because our starting salary is only $32,000 [a year] for teachers," said Karen Rudys, the Executive Director of Human Resources.
      Rudys said the district is currently filling the vacancies with long-term substitutes, many of whom are retired teachers, until the district can hire permanent replacements.
      The 200 vacancies are less than one percent of the district's total number of teachers, and the district says it doesn't expect to fill all of those positions. More

APS still down 200 teachers, retired teachers filling in as substitutes

Marita Noon: Mr. President, what about a campaign-style push to talk up America?

Commentary by Marita Noon - One of the unique roles of the executive is to be a cheerleader for his/her individual state—or in the case of the President, for his country.
      This is, perhaps, best exemplified by Texas Governor Rick Perry who, as ABC News puts it: “has made a campaign-style push in states like California, Illinois and Missouri by hosting business meetings and appearing on TV and radio shows to promise low taxes and incentives for any businesses with an itch to relocate.” InJune, Perry was in New York and Connecticut “to woo firearm manufacturers and other companies.” He launched a $1 million ad campaign in New York touting low-tax Texas, with a variety of Texans praising their paradise.
      Imagine if President Obama had done this—instead of an apology tour.
      He’d air ads in Germany encouraging them to buy American coal—after all, ours is cleaner burning than theirs (and Germany is very concerned about the environment); we have plenty of it (especially since we won’t be using so much after his policies shut down coal-fueled power plants); the price has dropped (while natural gas has gone up); they can get it from a friendly supplier (unlike the natural gas and coal Germany gets from Russia); and most importantly, Germany needs it (and apparently, he thinks we don’t).
      Thanks to Obama’s policies, we are prematurely shutting down our coal-fueled electricity generation—with the idea that we can replace it with wind and solar. Germany is prematurely shutting down its nuclear-powered fleet. It has already tried to go with wind and solar—with a goal of producing 80% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2050—but it is not working out so well. Since 2011, when Chancellor Angela Merkel launched the energy revolution, or Energiewende, designed to wean the country off of nuclear and fossil fuels, greenhouse gas emissions have gone up; the average price of electricity for companies has (according to the Wall Street Journal’s [WSJ] August 26 report) “jumped 60%” and are now more than double those in the U.S.; and, as nuclear plants are closed, they are being replaced with coal as “intermittent renewables alone” can’t “replace nuclear power and provide round-the-clock supply.”
      Germany’s story is a shock to many who see it as the model of “green.” Read full column

Marita Noon: Mr. President, what about a campaign-style push to talk up America?