Hello: As we head into the holidays, I wanted to give District 2 constituents and others on my email distributionlist my last update for 2014. It has been a very busy year and if you read newspapers or watch TV you might understand why I say that. Id like to give you a recap of the year and announce to you personally that I have decided to run for my seat on the Board of Election one more time. My announcement speech was posted this week on this page. I made this announcement last Tuesday - Veterans Day. I thank all my friends and supporters who dropped what they were doing to stand with me on that day! It means the world to me. In all honesty, the battle against bad education policies being pushed on our teachers and children have taken quite the toll on me and my family in more ways than one. Its hard being a public official and its hard juggling my duties to my constituents and my family obligations. It is difficult taking the hits on my character and its hard on my children and husband too. (And thank you to those teachers who have pulled my children aside over the years and given them support when Mom is in the news again!) However, I was raised to be the type of person who speaks out when something is wrong; defend a person who is being unjustly tormented; to speak the truth for others who cant. I have lived my life with these principles and I found myself battling education policies because these policies are immoral and unjust to the human beings we know and love personally: our educators (all of them who work in our schools) and most importantly, our children. So in the end, I will not and cannot walk away and look like all the targeted character attacks on me have defeated me. They have deflated me. But they have not beaten me. I have done nothing wrong. I have told the truth. And if you look at all the attacks and scrutinize them, they never address the issues that I have raised. They always address me personally or deflect the criticisms with superficial nonsense. It is for this reason that I will throw my name out there again. My work is not done. And I refuse to be silenced. There are too many education policy issues that remain unfixed and are destined to impact our public schools in a horrible way. The impact is already being felt. It will get worse if some of these bad policies are not rectified. So a little history of the past year: I. Stand4KidsNM I want to thank with all my heart the teachers and parents from across Albuquerque and the state of New Mexico who joined me in our fight with our grass-roots group Stand4KidsNM. Five of us in District 2 started Stand4KidsNM with the goal of educating more parents about what is happening in our schools. It grew in the past year to thousands statewide in a very powerful social media campaign that did become an effort to support Gary King because Gary was sitting with us parents and teachers and listening to us. He agreed with us. He vowed to help us with the unnecessary and extreme testing mandates and the elimination of the math model (called the VAM) that is absurdly used in the school grade and teacher evaluation process. Our group of citizens was called political. But education - unfortunately - has become political both here in New Mexico and across the nation. I have insisted all along that you cant solve bad policy with political solutions. And education reform in New Mexico (many parts of it) is a bad policy that is being sold as a political solution. Our Stand4KidsNM effort is akin to the hundreds of parent and teacher movements gaining steam across the United States. More teachers and parents are fighting back against the use of the million-dollar high-stakes standardized tests to grade schools, teachers and children. Stand4KidsNM was unique to New Mexico but mirrors the other parents movements. Most notably, our group of planners that grew from five to 20 took a lot of advice from the Tennessee Momma Bears. And I personally gleaned tips and ideas from a Nashville, TN, school board member (a mom serving her first term too!) in our efforts to beat back the standardized testing nonsense imposed on our schools. We are seeing across the nation Republican governors dropping Common Core and paring back the use of standardized tests. From Washington and Oregon, to Arizona, Oklahoma and Louisiana, to Texas, Tennessee, Florida and New York -- all these states are starting to heed the voices of parents and teachers and rolling back from these destructive money-driven education deforms. I vow to continue my fight against these standardized tests -- most notably the PARCC and End of Course exams -- and the use of the VAM model to grade our students, schools and teachers. Whether I do that as a school board member or a parent is going to be up to you!! Here is some more information about Stand4KidsNM. (And let me assure you: we moms, dads, citizens and teachers who are the driving force behind this movement did so with little money from our personal accounts and the use of the FREE Internet and all the wonderful social media tools at our disposal. We are NOT a PAC. And its a shame our own local representatives in the state House turned their backs on us and attacked us instead of listening to us moms.) 1. Our web site: stand4kidsnm.org We have put a lot of information for parents on our web site. We update it constantly. 2. This TV report about our movement was done by Public TV station KRWG in Las Cruces. It is a fair story - and the only one so far - about what Stand4KidsNM is and why we started it: krwg.org/post/stand4kidsnm-state-education-policy-critics-gagged-and-silenced II. District II Updates In my four years as a board member, I have saved all my updates to you. I gave you 113 updates via email. I was also a daily presence and voice on our Facebook pages. I met many people through our Facebook page and learned so much from teachers on the page. In fact, many of the issues and problems that come up with the education deforms have been raised in the Stand4KidsNM Facebook page. The daily discussions I had with parents and teachers allowed me to do my job better. I have been a constant communicator with many people. I have responded to all emails -- even the hateful ones -- and I have responded to most media requests for interviews, even when I knew the story was not going to give our cause due justice. Please consider my accessibility to our District II community, as well as my accessibility to all those in New Mexico I have reached out to and who have reached out to me. III. West Side Stadium I wasnt on the job for six months when I was embroiled in the beginning battle to stop the stadium from being built. I worked tirelessly with the surrounding neighborhoods to bridge the communication gap and address the concerns with APS officials and city officials. Dr. Brad Winter, then our Chief Operations Officer, and City Councilor Ken Sanchez were amazing allies in helping me address the citizen concerns. Have you gone to a football game at the Community Stadium? I have gone to many as a Volcano Vista fan and mother! What a gem this stadium is to our community! I recently got an email from a neighbor who told me: It is working out great. Thanks for all the help you gave us. The stadium is an asset to us. IV. Financial Scrutiny Before I was the object of media bashing, I was called the vigilant critic of bureaucratic waste by the Albuquerque Journal. I am a financial conservative and I like to look at numbers and why we spend what we spend at the district and state level. Back in FY2013, our district had a $1.2 million budget and 85% of that went directly to our classrooms in the form of teachers, staffing and kids. In FY2015, our budget was increased by the state to $1.3 million. But I cant say 85% of our money is going to our classrooms. They are still crowded. Our extra-curricular activities and sports, arts and music programs need the great assistance of parents to survive and flourish. The extra million our district received from the state for the 2014-15 school year went to much-needed salary increases for every education employee in our district -- teachers down to the custodial staff. It left not a lot of room for much else. There is still waste in education spending. Here are just a few examples of where our taxpayer dollars are being spent wastefully: -- We know the state says it has dedicated $9.8 million to the online PARCC tests. But its much more than that. In fact, its still unclear how many millions have been spent getting computers ready statewide for this test. The PARCC tests will be an implementation nightmare, I assure you. And they will also eat up three weeks of instructional time in March and four weeks of instruction in April-May. (See the testing calendar here: apsassessment.wordpress/calendar/) The PARCC boondoggle is a ridiculous waste of classroom time and our taxpayer money. And ultimately, it will prove a failure as our technology needs across the state are still lacking. -- In the spring of 2014, it cost our district $113,000 to administer the flawed and error-ridden End of Course exams. WASTE. And this year, there are more of them AND they are given in December and May! How much statewide is being spent on EOCs? We dont know. That is a nontransparent waste of our money on a flawed exam. -- It cost the APS district $1.8 million to ADD assistant principals to our schools. The extra help was much needed by our principals, burdened with the new evaluation system. But a mere four years ago, the state and the media would scream about the top-heavy school districts. And yet, these reforms require the need for more administrators to help carry out the mandates of the system!!!! -- It cost the district $1.3 million to ADD a testing coordinator at each of our schools this year. These testing coordinators are needed to oversee the administration of ADDED PARCC and End of Course exams. And yet, two of my four children had long-term substitutes in core classes until mid-October because we have a teacher shortage. The state reforms are forcing our most experienced teachers out of the door while we need to add ludicrous testing coordinators and more administrators to comply with these unfunded mandates. I have never said raise taxes to support our schools. What I have said is the money allocated to education spending in the state and district is misspent and needs scrutiny as to whether all the programs being implemented are actually linked to higher academic achievement. The EOC and PARCC exams do NOT equate to higher academic achievement. V. The superintendent I will say now that the removal of the former superintendent is something I cannot speak of now or during the campaign. The settlement precludes any discussion about this incident from me. I am sorry for that. But I have to stand by the settlement agreement. I will tell you that the search for a new superintendent will be vitally important. I would like to help pick the new superintendent as the choice will fall to the Board after the election. The APS Board of Education has allocated $25,000 for the search itself. I am sensitive to the fact that the perks of the job are not something that resonate with those of us who struggle to feed our families daily. I will push hard for a reasonable contract that is sensitive to the hardships felt by most of our New Mexico families. VI. The Future: Is There Room to Compromise? Let me say that despite what the media says, I am a reasonable person. I am willing to negotiate if ANYONE in power is willing to truly listen to the concerns of teachers and parents!!! So far, we have been met with great resistance from these politicians, as well as patronizing and superficial responses. That is unacceptable! Like the Obama health care fiasco, our New Mexico politicians shouldnt defend education policies they cant explain! These parts of the reforms are what I cannot and will not negotiate on: -- The use of the VAM to rate a teacher; -- The administration of the PARCC and EOC and their use in the VAM formula. In fact, I am sponsoring a teacher and parent resolution that will be presented Nov. 25. This resolution, written by parents and teachers, asks that the use of the PARCC and EOCs be delayed and their use in the VAM model be halted! I can and will negotiate on this: -- Can a teachers evaluation score comprise more than 25% of a score? Can other measures -- like short-cycle assessments or schools EPPS plans -- be part of a teachers score? Can these other measures be on a district-by-district and/or school-by-school basis? What works at one school may not work at another! Listening to overviews from principals of their instructional audits is teaching me that. In any case, the use of a high-stakes test to comprise 50% of a score based on an invalid math formula should be tossed completely. The attached picture is an Open Records Act response received by a teacher who filed his request in May and got the attached response on July 3. I have copied and pasted the VAM formula to protect the teachers identity. This teacher -- rated exceptional by his boss -- was deemed ineffective after his VAM score. He pounded on doors all summer, sought an explanation for how his score was derived, demanded an in-person meeting with PED officials. He did get the attached response on July 9. And last week, after he threatened to get his lawyer involved, he got a letter saying his evaluation had been changed and he was removed from the ineffective list. He still doesnt know how that change was made - or why! We all get evaluated in our jobs but I want to ask you: Do you get evaluated based on this kind of math formula? If you do and you can completely understand how three years of former students and their test scores are used to make this formula a valid formula, then please share. Because so far, the only man who can understand this formula is now gone from New Mexico and we in the education trenches are wondering: Now what? How can this be validated? How can this be used? Furthermore, here is a link to a presentation given to lawmakers this summer and the Board of Education in October by the Coalition of Excellence in Science and Math Education: cese.org/ Please read this. If our smartest scientists and mathematicians in Albuquerque say the VAM is unworkable, then shouldnt we re-think its use?? I emphatically say YES. VII. My Campaign My campaign web site and Facebook pages are up and running. kathy4kids.org https://facebook/kathykorteDistrict2 In my 2011 campaign, I raised $3,366 in cash contributions and $2,505.00 in in-kind contributions. I seek your support both with your vote and a small contribution to help me offset my costs. Back in 2011, I ran for this office because of the kids. In 2015, I seek to continue my fight for the kids. The PARCC and End of Course exams are hurting EVERY SINGLE CHILD in the state of New Mexico. From our brightest and highest achieving students, to our special education students to all the students in-between: these exams are wasting classroom instruction time; they do not adequately reflect learning (short-cycle assessments do a better job at this); they discriminate based on the fact that many kids in New Mexico do not have computers and technology at their disposal. My fight has expanded: My fight now is also about: 1. Parents rights to ask questions about the tests and get honest answers about whether the tests are actually helping their children (please no more analogies to cell phone purchases and blood pressure exams!); 2. Parents rights to refuse to allow their children to participate in the nonsensical high-stakes testing boondoggle and opt out of those tests with no repercussions to their children; 3. Teachers rights to speak freely and without fear to parents about the benefits (or not) of the tests they are administering; 4. Principals rights to stand up for their schools as instructional leaders and speak freely of what is working and what is not. I vow that I refuse to spend more than $7,000 on a re-election campaign. I anticipate political powers may spend thousands more to try to unseat me. So be it. Ill replicate the good things we did in 2011 and hope that my record, my transparency and my honesty will prevail. I am running for office on the same platform I ran before. This is not about anything other than what is best for our kids. I am that voice -- living in the trenches with my children and teachers and fighting some of the absurdity coming down from state and federal governments. I do need help, however. There are many posters to paint and fliers to print! I would appreciate any small amount that you can spare to help me with my 2015 campaign. My campaign team comprises the same men and women who have helped me coordinate our Stand4KidsNM efforts. Thank you to them! VII. Thank You Despite what the media portrays, I receive so much support from my district, across the city and across the state. I thank you all for that support. There have been many days where I felt defeated. But I go out into the community or open up my Facebook and email threads and get consolation and strength to keep fighting for our kids. I have served our community not because I get a salary to do so. (APS Board members receive anywhere from $4,000 to $5,000 a year. We earn $85 per official meeting posted on our district web site.) My service has been one of heartfelt desire to serve our kids, teachers, schools and local communities because I love my community and I love living in New Mexico. I admit I can be colorful. I enjoy being with people. I am passionate about my views. I care about the world we live in. In this season of holiday cheer, I will be grateful for the opportunity to have served my community and to have met all the wonderful people I have met on this journey. And I will be grateful for the kindness and love and the very hard work I have seen our education professionals exhibit to our children despite the difficulties they face. I will also be grateful for my family and dear friends -- and dear NEW friends -- who have stood by me, cheered me up and kept me going in the tough times. You know who you are! The campaign will heat up after the holidays. So until then, I wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas. I pray that we all have a better 2015. Warm regards, Kathy
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 17:36:27 +0000
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