Proposal aims to abolish education secretary job
A Democratic senator wants to amend the New Mexico Constitution to do away with the Cabinet secretary of public education, one of the most powerful positions in state government.
Sen. Michael Padilla of Albuquerque has filed Senate Joint Resolution 2, which would resurrect an elected state board of education to oversee public schools and abolish the job of education secretary.
“The reason I am going down this road is every time a new governor comes and goes — be it every four or eight years — all the pieces within so many departments get thrown up in the air,” Padilla said last week. “There may be things that are working that get overturned, and there may be things that are not working that get overturned, but we should focus on the things that are working and keep them going.”
His proposal, if approved by both houses of the state Legislature, would go before voters in November 2018. It would allow the board to hire and fire a state school superintendent at will, meaning the top administrator in education could be on the job as little as one year or for decades.
Padilla called the chances of the bill going forward in the Democratic-controlled House and Senate in the upcoming 60-day legislative session “excellent.” Proposed constitutional amendments do not require the approval of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez.
In the long run, Padilla’s resolution calls for the public to elect 10 people to make up the new board of education. That body would in turn hire a superintendent who would carry out the board’s policies, much as district superintendents do under the control of local school boards.
Those 10 elected officials would represent the same geographical districts already defined by the sitting Public Education Commission members, who have limited powers. Those commission members monitor about 60 charter schools overseen by the state.
Patricia Gipson, chairwoman of the Public Education Commission, said she thinks a state board of education is a good idea, but it should not lead to the elimination of the education commission.
“The state school board would have enough to do managing and dealing with all of the [89] school districts in the state, so to put the charter schools in their lap as well would be way too much,” she said. “I don’t think it would be a good fit.”
But, she said, a state school board made up of 10 regional representatives would “put the public schools back into the hands of elected individuals who are and should be more responsive to the people in their communities.”
Under the resolution, the state school board members would not be paid but would receive an expense allowance.
Current state law allows a governor to choose the Cabinet secretary of public education, though the Senate has the authority to confirm or reject the appointee.
Democrats who control the state Senate waited four years before confirming Martinez’s education secretary, Hanna Skandera, in a 22-19 vote.
“I have the utmost respect for Secretary of Education Skandera,” Padilla said. “But the way the Constitution is written right now, I could put a gas station attendant in that position if I chose and if the Senate confirmed him.”
Padilla in 2015 voted against Skandera continuing as education secretary.
Padilla introduced a similar bill to eliminate the secretary of public education in 2013, but it stalled on the Senate floor.
Sen. Bill Soules, D-Las Cruces, said he plans to introduce a similar resolution that would create a nine-member state school board that would then hire a superintendent. In his case, he said, the public would elect five of those members and the other four would be appointed, probably by the House of Representatives and the Senate. His measure would not eliminate the Public Education Commission.
Soules said he has not yet talked with Padilla about his resolution but that it is possible the two could be joined together in one bill.
New Mexico’s public education system was run by a state board of education for years before voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2002 eliminating that board and giving the governor the power to choose a secretary of education in 2003. Then-Gov. Bill Richardson chose Veronica García as the state’s first secretary of education. She now is superintendent of Santa Fe Public Schools.
The 60-day legislative session begins Jan. 17.
The Santa Fe New Mexican is a sister-paper of The Taos News. Contact Robert Nott at 505-986-3021 or rnott@sfnewmexican.com.
