"... first in bureaucracy and last in achievement."

says House Minority Whip
Keith Gardner.
He was referring to the
NM Public Education Department.

It was one of a number of spot on observations by state lawmakers interviewed by Kate Nash, Santa Fe New Mexican, link, for her report on the cuts lawmakers would like to see in state bureaucracies, in particular the NMPED under NM Secretary of Public Education Veronica Garcia.

Nash reported, "... no other state in (her) comparison spends as much overall for administrators."

Garcia's staff reported that the
NMPED spends only 0.04 percent of the funds that they administer, on administrators. It is one of those statistics that sounds good until you think about it. No matter what the number is, it doesn't speak to efficiency or effectiveness.

A wasted dollar is a wasted dollar.
Whether it is a millionth of the budget, a billionth of the budget or a zillionth of the budget is a distinction useful only to Public Information Officers whose job it is to make people like Garcia, look good.

They work for her, not for taxpayers.

Since we're playing with statistical manipulation of numbers, I would like to play with the statistics regarding the number of Public Information Officers that Garcia "needs" compared to the other states Nash investigated.

Here are some numbers that point to a real problem.

Garcia "needs" 170% more PIO's per student than Idaho.
Garcia "needs" 181% more PIO's per student than Nebraska.
Garcia "needs" 294% more PIO's per student than Kansas.
Garcia "needs" 340% more PIO's per student than Utah.

Garcia, according to Nash, is not going to be able to cut any of her top staff. If there are going to be cuts Garcia says, they will be in personnel.

All of which begs at least one question;

How do taxpayers know that government bureaucracies
are lean and mean?

The answer is that we have to "trust" people like Garcia, and
like APS Superintendent Winston Brooks to not only
know the truth, but then be willing to tell us the truth.

So far, their willingness to let the public know the truth, is
best reflected in their willingness to let independent auditors
come in, sniff around, and then report to the public record.

So far, no one of them has had independent auditors come into the bureaucracies they head, and do then an honest and impartial audit of their management models. No one of them is going to allow impartial audits that report to the public record.

And I will argue again, as I have argued before, in holding people accountable, "trusting" politicians and public servants runs a far distant second to auditing them, independently, impartially, and honestly.

Every one of our pennies, spent by state government, should be subject to audit and public knowledge. Then and only then, will government grow to be lean and mean. Only then can we feel any real confidence that our tax dollars are being spent effectively and efficiently, and not being spent instead on filing the stable with bunches of political cronies and hangers on.




photos Mark Bralley