Educational Reform

Educational Reform is very important for the future of our educational system and for the future of young people who will be our future workforce in this country. Over the past eight years I have watched the administration side of education become top heavy with high paying jobs where the individuals have no contact with students. As we have seen over the past few months this will lead to a meltdown of our educational system as it has caused a meltdown of some of our leading industries. Now is the time to enact smart reform and put the money back in the front line jobs of education. In New Mexico one administration job paying $100,000 could be used to pay the salaries of 2.5 frontline teachers. It could be use to pay for 4 or 5 instructional support staff who substitute teach and tutor students. We do not need more out of touch individuals who earn so much money to attend endless meetings that result in a poor quality of education for our children of all ages. A national ratio of teachers and instructional staff to administrators should be developed for our schools to prevent unnecessarily spending of taxpayer’s dollars. Laws should be pasted to prevent administrators from hiring employees without paying benefits. Too many of our current instructors are being hired only as part time employees where they are not given the time to develop high quality lesson plans for their students. They are being forced to work more than one job to make ends meet for basic needs. This can and does result in instructors and instructional staff having a lowered ability to provide high quality education for the students. A minimum wage based on regional cost of living for instructors and instructional staff should be enacted to ensure that these individuals can center their attention and skills on student and not on trying to make ends meet at home. Most people who enter the field of education are not looking to get rich but they still have to provide a basic level of income to meet their daily needs in order to support their own families. This is the type of educational reform that should be enacted to raise the level of education in this country.