NEA New Mexico Cheers Legislators who stood up for Public Schools and working New Mexicans
Written by Charles Goodmacher of the NM NEA
Anti-family Right to Work bill defeated; but more work needs to be done to ensure better outcomes for
NM’s students
(SANTA FE) – Warning that the struggle for working families has just begun, the National Education Association of New Mexico’s leadership today hailed legislative champions who fought to defeat a pernicious Right to Work bill and lauded those who made strengthening public schools their top priority in the just-completed first session of the 52nd New Mexico State Legislature.
“Thankfully, legislative leaders saw through the smoke-screen and defeated Right to Work, which would have lowered wages and reduced opportunities for New Mexicans seeking to climb out of poverty,” said National Education Association-New Mexico President Betty Patterson. “This was just the beginning, so we must remain vigilant to stop future efforts to harm working families through this Right to Work scheme.”
NEA-New Mexico singled out several legislators who took decisive action to stop Right to Work during the session. These include Senators Michael Sanchez, Daniel Ivey-Soto, Jerry Ortiz y Pino, Jacob Candelaria and Mimi Stewart. NEA-NM Executive Director Charles Bowyer said “Elections have consequences; the loss of pro-public education majority in the House meant a great deal of effort defeating very bad ideas which originated in that chamber such as vouchers, placing the flawed-teacher evaluation system into law, watering down our licensure system and turning it into a statutory merit-pay scheme, and so-called “right to work.”
Read more here: http://www.grantcountybeat.com/editorial/20798-nea-new-mexico-cheers-legislators-who-stood-up-for-public-schools-and-working-new-mexicans