Governor Bill Richardson Unveils Education Report Card, Proposes Initiatives to Improve Struggling Schools

Governor Bill Richardson Unveils Education Report Card, Proposes Initiatives to Improve Struggling Schools

ALBUQUERQUE - Governor Bill Richardson today unveiled the state's 2nd annual Education Report Card, which shows progress in teacher quality (moving from a B- to a B) and resource equity (moving from a B to a B+), including investing in students in the classroom (moving from 70.7% support to classrooms to 76%).

The report card, which relies on third-party evaluations of the state's education system, also gave New Mexico high marks for its nationally recognized academic standards and assessments (grade of A) and access to technology (Ranked 10 out of 50 states).

However, those improvements are only now starting to have an impact in the classroom. The report card shows that many schools still have work to do ensure all students are proficient in reading and math.

"We are taking all the right steps to raise academic achievement and close the opportunity gap," Governor Bill Richardson said, noting that the state has invested an additional $600 million from the permanent funds to pay for reform efforts. About $420 million has been invested in teacher salaries and benefits to help recruit and retain quality educators. "But we clearly have more work to do."
Governor Richardson today proposed three major initiatives that are designed to help students, especially those at low-performing schools, and ultimately close the opportunity gap. The Governor proposed:

1. After-School Enrichment Program that will provide opportunities for tutoring and other programs four days a week. At a cost of $7.5 million dollars, the state can fund 108 programs across the state (including transportation costs) - reaching 108,000 students.

2. New Mexico Executive Educator Turn Around Specialist program. The state will invest $1.5 million to train 20 certified school principals to be executive turn-around specialists for low-performing schools. They will undergo intensive training at the University of Virginia using the most advanced thinking in business and education to meet the demands of our most challenged schools. The program is part of Microsoft's Partners in Learning initiative.

3. School Improvement initiative. Expand the initiatives started this year with $13 million to pay for extended school days and longer school years at certain low-performing schools; pay for Reading, Math & Summer Institutes and the rest of the Governor's school improvement framework.

"These are bold initiatives that will directly address some of the weaknesses of our statewide report card," Governor Richardson said.

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