Cutting the State Budget

The time has come in this state to pay the piper and it will not be petty to watch state lawmakers cut the budget. Services may well be reduced that could harm low income individuals and individuals who find themselves out of work because of layoffs. Everyone is trying to protect what they value most in this round of cuts.

What should be protected and why is the ever growing question being raised by state lawmakers? Some lawymakers understand the direct relationship between education and this state’s future when it comes to pulling this state out of the current recession. They know that without a well trained workforce that New Mexico will continue to lose jobs and that any jobs left will not pay well which will have a direct effect on the amount of taxes from payroll. Low paying jobs would also increase future demand for government services.

The questions has to be why is Republican elected officials still demanding cross the board cuts that include education in this state? When it comes to dealing with controlling the cost of education no state lawmaker will even begin to discuss the issue of high paid administration. When we cannot begin to pay for teachers in the classrooms and educational support staff who work directly with students why on earth are we paying huge outrages salaries to an administration that does not even spend time with our children? When are state lawmakers going to start to address this issue?

We currently have large dropout rates, 5,000 or more homeless children in the K-12 system and low paid educators who have to apply for government services just to make ends met and support their own families. Classroom supplies are still being paid for by parents and classroom teachers. Yet school administrators are making six figure salaries and can’t understand how they could live on less. They point out how many people they have to supervise but how many students dose an educator manage during a single day? What is most important to the residents of this state and why? As my dearly departed mother use to say enough is a enough and too much is nasty. School administrators should be willing take less in pay at a time like this so as to protect our children otherwise what are they even doing in the field. Educators and support staff took a 1.5% pay decrease in the last budget cycle to help balance the current budget.