Swickard: Cheating the test, cheating the society

© 2013 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. School grades for New Mexico public schools are out. Here is the problem: the mania for testing has no real value for the students. Further, teachers must stop teaching more of their time and prepare for tests to evaluate the school. This has no educational basis. It supports a bloated school administration and nothing else.
     What is the purpose of education in New Mexico? To create citizens who have the skills, abilities and knowledge to thrive in our society. This is the one goal, the only goal. There is no other legitimate purpose for public school education. Know this: education should not be primarily a jobs program for adults.
     For students their purpose is not to get high scores, attend college or to win academic awards. Again, their purpose is to become productive members of our society. Scores, college and awards may help but they are not the purpose. Graduation rates and college attendance are interim goals, not the purpose.
     Sadly, the purpose of the accountability testing in New Mexico is to label public schools B or D as if it makes any difference for students becoming productive members of their society. Show me the study saying going to a D school keeps students from becoming a productive member of the community. There are none.
     The dirty little secret is that the avalanche of testing is harmful to students and teachers alike. Students will never get a job taking tests and have no lasting need for test-taking skills. Students spend an inordinate amount of time on tasks of no long-term value for themselves.
     For teachers the testing mania is a never ending nightmare. Administrators demand results because their jobs are on the line. Adults are trying to protect their jobs. Whole school staffs have been fired when a school does poorly on the tests.
     But if you swap the entire staff of a low-performing school with the staff of a high-performing school the next year will look essentially the same, it is not the teachers that make the biggest effect. Yes, good teaching is great, but schools have a long history tied to the parents.Read full column

Swickard: Cheating the test, cheating the society

Spaceport America gets private loan

Spaceport America got a green light Wednesday to take out a $20.8 million private loan to build two visitor centers in southern New Mexico, a move supporters described as an important business step for the commercial space flight venture. 

Members of the state Board of Finance, including Gov. Susana Martinez, voted 7-0 to authorize the loan, which spaceport officials said could be completed within 30 days. Construction of the visitor centers could begin soon after. 

However, several Board of Finance members expressed concern Wednesday about the possibility state funds will have to be used to pay back the loan if the spaceport’s visitor estimates prove to be overly optimistic. 

Already, $209 million in state money has been appropriated to pay for construction of the main Spaceport America facilities.

Spaceport America gets private loan

AG says behavioral health audit investigation could take months

 Attorney General Gary King says it could take several months for his office to complete an investigation of overpayments and possible fraud by behavioral health providers in New Mexico's Medicaid program. 

King told the Legislative Finance Committee on Wednesday that his office hasn't made a determination about the allegations forwarded to his office by the Human Services Department. The department froze payments to 15 nonprofit groups last month after an audit found what the agency said was a high rate of billing problems. 

Human Services Secretary Sidonie Squier defended her agency's action in testimony to the committee and assured lawmakers that steps were being taken to prevent an interruption of mental health and substance abuse services to patients.

AG says behavioral health audit investigation could take months

Free roaming cattle creating problems in Rio Rancho

From KOB-TV.com - By: Stuart Dyson, KOB Eyewitness News 4 - A problem straight out of the old Wild West is troubling a Rio Rancho neighborhood these days – free range cattle. Trouble is, these cows take the “free” part of free range pretty seriously. They come and go as they please in the North Hills subdivision, leaving behind frequent and fragrant reminders that they were here. Cow flops.
     North Hills is plastered with them. They’re on the sidewalks. They’re in the parks. They’re even in your front yard! And that’s not the dangerous part about this herd of 8 or 9 cows. “When you’re driving along the road and they just come popping out of the arroyo or something, it’s bad,” said North Hills homeowner Edward Kisner. “There’s cars going both ways. One will swerve into the other one’s lane. I’ve had close calls where I've almost made ground beef!”
     We found the cattle shading themselves beneath a scrawny-looking juniper tree on the open range right next to the subdivision. Open range means the owner of the cattle doesn’t have to fence them in, It’s up to other property owners to fence them out – and North Hills is not exactly a walled fortress.
     For now, Rio Rancho cops keep herding the cattle out of the neighborhood with their patrol cars, and the cows keep coming right back in search of fresh grass and water. Neighbors say police officers tell them they have to tolerate the visitors.
     “It’s a nuisance,” said Kisner, who’s lived in North Hills for 17 years. “I’m sick and tired of it. They’re unpredictable. This is my neighborhood. I shouldn't have to smell cow poop in the morning!” Read more

Free roaming cattle creating problems in Rio Rancho

APD officer bumps into wall, shoots another officer in leg

From KOB-TV.com - By: Elizabeth Reed, KOB.com - lbuquerque police have released more information about an officer shooting late Monday. Police were searching for an armed person near Gonzales and Old Coors when Sgt. Darcy McDermeit bumped into a wall and her gun went off. The bullet hit officer Scott Maher in the lower leg.
     Officials tell KOB Eyewitness News 4 he is expected to make a full recovery. Sgt. McDermeit will be on administrative duty until the investigation is over. MORE

APD officer bumps into wall, shoots another officer in leg

Green Energy’s Too Expensive

From Townhall.com - by Marita Noon - On Wednesday, July 10, the House passed H.R. 2609—which Bloomberg News called a “$30.4 Billion Energy-Water Spending Measure.” The 2014 Energy-Water Development appropriations bill will cut spending on renewables and other green energy programs in half and was passed mostly along party lines—with 4 Republicans voting against and 7 Democrats for it.
     Democrats offered amendments to the bill aimed at restoring funding to renewable energy programs, which failed. Republicans’ amendments focused on cuts: Rep. Tim Walberg of Michigan sponsored an amendment that would eliminate spending for a national media campaign promoting alternative energy, and Rep. John Fleming, M.D. of Louisiana sponsored an amendment to stop a $3.25 billion green energy loan program—both were approved.
     While many of the different taxpayer funded green energy programs introduced in the 2009 stimulus bill —which have produced more than 50 bankrupt, or near bankrupt, projects—have now expired, the Fleming amendment draws attention to a pot of money that is, currently, largely unspent. Fleming describes this remaining boondoggle: “The Obama 2009 stimulus bill cost taxpayers about $830 billion, and much of it was wasted on growing government and administration giveaways, like a $3.25 billion loan program that put taxpayers on the hook for failed green energy projects. A company could take a government loan and walk away from a project without paying taxpayers back, even if the company remained in business. In a free market economy, companies may turn to banks and investors to borrow money, but the government should not force taxpayers to be lenders, even as it gives borrowers a pass on paying back their loans.” Read full column

Green Energy’s Too Expensive

Inmate uses code for prison drug smuggling

From KRQE-TV.com - by Chris McKee - A New Mexico prison inmate thought he was being sneaky having phone conversations about shirt colors and cutting the grass that corrections officials say was really code for trying to get drugs into prison. Now one man that was free is locked up.
     New Mexico Corrections Department officers listened to the phone conversations of three people for about a week in June. In the recordings, a man and woman were heard getting orders from an inmate who apparently was not ready to give up his criminal ways.
     “Our agents have to stay one step ahead of this at all times and they really have done a fabulous job of that,” said Alex Tomlin, a spokeswoman for the New Mexico Corrections Department.
     The recent incident that tested officers happened at the Central New Mexico Corrections Facility in Los Lunas, involving a man named Reynaldo Vargas. Vargas is an inmate there doing time for drug possession, assault, escape and trafficking charges.  Vargas is accused of trying to get his friends to sneak drugs in through a letter. Corrections officers discovered it while sweeping the mail with a drug detecting K9 which picked up on the scent of a drug called “Suboxone.”
     “Suboxone is unique because it is not illegal out in the free world, it's a prescription you can go get,” said Tomlin. But in prison, Suboxone is illegal. The drug mimics the effects of heroin and typically used to help wean people off of narcotic addiction.
     Once corrections officers found the drug, they looked into how the inmates tried to get it in. “They went back and listened to some phone messages, they did some investigative work, they called in state police,” said Tomlin. Read more

Inmate uses code for prison drug smuggling

Swickard: The radical I have become

© 2013 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. Ronald Reagan explained he did not leave the Democrat party, the Democrat party left him. The principles he embraced when he joined the Democrats were no longer being embraced. Reagan had three choices: first, try to change those core values back to what they were when he joined the party. Second, he could belong to a party not representing his principles. Or third, he could leave, which is what he ultimately did.
     Reagan became a Republican and the rest is history. His core principles stayed the same, but his political label changed. What party would Reagan join today? His core beliefs are central to neither major party.
Lately I am seen as a radical for my core beliefs. What beliefs? That we Americans are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Further, that with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we Americans mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor in defense of our country.
     My beliefs in God, the U. S. Constitution and my right to protect myself were mainstream in the society to which I was born. I still pray to God each day and view the Constitution as the guiding principle for our nation including my right to have and use a means to protect myself.
     Know this: the God of my birth is still my God. The Constitution of my nation’s birth is still my Constitution. My right to protect myself, a right I had at birth, is still paramount. Read full column

Swickard: The radical I have become

Abortion debate heats up in NM

The abortion debate could be moving from Texas to New Mexico. 

A group in Albuquerque, Voices for Family Values has started a petition to put an ordinance on the November ballot that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

 Chris Donnelly of Voices for Family Values says this ordinance would bring "common sense" legislation regarding abortion laws. 

The group has until July 25 to get 15,000 signatures to get the ordinance on the ballot. According to the city, if the group does get the signatures, the city will put this on the November ballot. If it does pass, it would be challenged immediately because the state law already addresses abortion rights in New Mexico. 

Currently, the New Mexico law bans partial birth abortion.

Abortion debate heats up in NM

Powder found at Santa Fe Courthouse not dangerous

Authorities say a suspicious substance found in mail sent to a judge at the Santa Fe Courthouse isn't dangerous. 

Santa Fe Fire Department Assistant Chief Jan Snyder said Wednesday that preliminary testing identified the white powdery substance as sodium bicarbonate, commonly considered baking soda. Additional testing will be done at a laboratory in Albuquerque. 

The courthouse was evacuated for several hours but it's reopening for business in the afternoon. Chief Judge Raymond Ortiz said 20 people in the court clerk's office were isolated after a worker found the powder in an envelope addressed to District Judge Stephen Pfeffer.

Powder found at Santa Fe Courthouse not dangerous