Do Principles Matter When It Comes to Public Education for K-12 or Higher Education?

Yesterday the Board of Finance voted to cut our state budget across the board by 3.2%. The only person to vote no was Diane Denish when it came to education, in either K-12 or higher education. I must admit to being very disappointed by James B. Lewis since educators supported him.

The two year colleges and four year universities in this state will decide how to cut their own budgets after this cut in state funding. State Legislators say that colleges and universities are over funded but the public is not holding them accountable for how they spend that money. Too many college and university presidents feel free to spend huge amounts of our taxpayer’s dollars on sports and administrative salaries while cutting the salaries of the lowest paid individuals who work directly with students.

The Legislature refuses to do anything to put a stop to this behavior and because of that more low income individuals and students will be harmed because of this cut. The problem appears to be that those high paid administrative professionals have paid off our elected officials and they don’t give a crap about those of us who can’t afford the ticket price for admission to their high dollar parties. It does not help when college administration finds ways to cut our annual pay without even having to tell the voting public about it. So must for being valued by anyone in a position of power in this state.

Maybe it is time to start thinking about staying home from the polls if this is the treatment we get from the people we elect to office. Or better yet maybe we should start being more selective about who we vote for in the future since the only one that appears to support us on a consistence bases on that committee is Diane Denish. At times even I get sick and tired of hearing one thing during a campaign year and then seeing quite another behavior by our elected representatives for the next four years. Candidates count on the voting public having short attention spans when it comes to what they vote on while in office if the voting public has any questions about that just look at Susana Martinez’s record on Education.