President Stephanie LyAFT News:
ALBUQUERQUE ― American Federation of Teachers New Mexico President Stephanie Ly released the following statement, delivered at the Senate Democratic Majority press conference:
“From Albuquerque, to Carlsbad, to Gallup, to Taos, our members educate the children of New Mexico. Our members span from a child’s first classroom to the halls of higher education. We are teachers, educational assistants, bus drivers, maintenance, secretaries, food service workers, early educators, professors, and everything in between.
With so many different schools, jobs, and communities under the AFT NM banner, you might think we lack a consistent message. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Our members focus each and every day on ensuring that all of New Mexico’s students receive the highest quality public education possible, and our members also focus on ensuring we are respected as professionals. All educators are unified in seeking the best policy possible when it comes to our students, and Governor Martinez and the House GOP priorities during this 30-Day Session simply do not help our students.
In fact, Gov. Martinez, House GOP Leader Nate Gentry, and the PED have chosen to ignore the needs of our students and schools. Instead, they have chosen to focus on punitive, failed policies like third-grade flunking, diminishing the qualifications for classroom teachers, and have ignored the fact that the PED, Governor, and House GOP Leader are content with paying our school workers poverty wages.
Do not be mistaken, educators across New Mexico care about crime and safety, too; however, we are in the schools and classrooms every day and we know crime will persist in our state unless we choose to address the root issues – lack of jobs in our State, rampant child poverty, lack of early education opportunities for our youngest learners, and low wages for workers.
We are underfunding our schools, and this Governor, the PED, and House GOP Leader have willfully chosen to continue to increase the PED ‘slush fund’ at the expense of our children and our public schools.
This 30-Day session has been a complete missed opportunity for our students, schools, and educators, and the blame falls squarely at the feet of Gov. Martinez, Nate Gentry’s GOP House Majority, and the PED for refusing to make any effort to meaningfully improve the standing of our public schools in New Mexico.”