Sanchez is Blocking Education Reforms

Hanna Skandera

For Bill Richardson, the leadership in the state Senate was willing to pass virtually every bill he submitted without amendment. And in New Mexico spending on education skyrocketed during the Richardson years. New Mexico now ranks 18th in spending per student. Unfortunately results produced by the system have not kept up with funding. There is a consensus within the population that real reform, not more money, should be the approach to the problem.
Along came the 2010 election. Governor Susana Martinez won a sizeable majority while carrying the aggressive education reform banner. Polls suggest Martinez is one of the most popular governors in the nation and voters want reforms.

Michael Sanchez

Early in 2011 the governor nominated Hanna Skandera to help her lead the battle to reform education. Unfortunately the same leadership that has had a stranglehold on education for years refuses to even address Skandera’s confirmation let alone reform failing processes in the system.

Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, working behind the scenes with those benefitting from the status quo in education, seems determined to submarine the governor’s education nominee and never provide her with a confirmation hearing. It is an example of what is truly wrong in New Mexico politics when one party controls the legislature for more than eighty years.

Sanchez is Blocking Education Reforms