Arizona’s education win should jumpstart reform in New Mexico
The most important development in education reform in the United States just transpired right next door to New Mexico — a state coming in dead last for education.
At the end of June, Arizona unlocked education freedom for all the state’s K-12 students through universal, fully funded education savings accounts. From now on, education funding for primary and secondary education in Arizona will follow students, not systems. This is a historical inflection point that New Mexico should answer with a long-overdue debate about education reform here, too.
The current state of K-12 education in New Mexico is not a “cause for concern” — it’s a full-blown scandal. Our schools rank dead last in the country. We rank 45th in high school graduation rate and 47th in school safety. It’s not a question of money: New Mexico spends more per pupil than most of our neighbors. Just as frustrating is the stark difference in average SAT scores, where we rank 20th, above the national average. That only confirms there is no chronic, ineffable social or economic excuse for our underperformance. New Mexico’s kids are as talented as any others; our schools are just letting them down.
Maybe it’s a coincidence, but New Mexico also ranks last in school choice programs, with a grand total of zero.
Except, there may not be any government programs, but there’s plenty of school choice here. Rich families exercise school choice 100% of the time. Some pay tuition for private schools. Some pay the equivalent in higher housing prices in exclusive communities with top schools. Others forego some surplus household income and home-school their kids. The upshot is the same. Affluent families dictate how and where their children are educated.
Indeed, more than 50% of all U.S children either attend private schools, magnet schools, charter schools, home school, or live in a home their parents bought for the school district. One way or another, every family in America that can afford school choice already has it.
That’s what makes Arizona’s new approach so exciting: it’s universal. It levels the playing field for all K-12 students in the state, fully and equally funding each child’s education, while leaving the specific school he or she attends up to the families.
This is not privatization; it’s pluralism — diversity reflected in policy. Intuitively, we know one-size-fits-all approaches do not work when it comes to raising and educating children. But we don’t have to rely on intuition. The data is very clear. Some kids flourish with more structure, others with more flexibility. Some kids need more discipline or moral instruction. Some benefit from more practical lessons, others are more abstract and theoretical learners.
It’s not a gotcha statistic that public school teachers are twice as likely — and politicians four-times as likely — as everyone else to send their kids to private schools. They know their kids! And while the traditional public education system — rigidly governed by income and ZIP code — works for lots of students, it doesn’t work for everyone. What Arizona showed is that through universal ESAs, states can redistribute resources to make everyone rich in education options.
That’s a step toward greater equity, equality, freedom, and opportunity. Now is the time for New Mexico to look beyond our underperforming status quo and let the diversity of our communities and unique talents of each student guide a new era in pluralistic, public education.
Lucas Gauthier is the community engagement director for Americans for Prosperity-New Mexico. Jonathan Olivas is the community engagement director for The LIBRE Initiative-New Mexico.
This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Arizona’s education win should jumpstart reform in New Mexico
