Esquivel renews attack on charter schools

A few weeks ago, the leadership of the APS got spanked by State Auditor Hector Balderas, link, over audit irregularities primarily involving charter schools. They responded by grossly overstepping their authority by demanding an immediate surrender of certain bookkeeping records under threat of revocation of their charters.

The Secretary of NM's Public Education Department stepped in to mediate/referee/guide them to a peaceful resolution of the dispute. The hearing didn't go well for APS' leadership; APS Supt Winston Brooks was so chagrined by the ruling, he lost control while leaving the meeting, link; embarrassing himself and the district.

Well, apparently, School Board President Marty Esquivel can't take "grow up" for an answer, and he wants some payback against one of the charter school principals who handed him his ass at the NMPED meeting.

Now he and his cronies at the Journal, have launched another attack on charters principal and superintendent, Scot Glasrud, link. Esquivel thinks Glasrud is making too much money.

The truth is, it is none of Esquivel's business how much Glasrud makes; that is between Glasrud and his stakeholders. They, by way, could not be happier with his success at three charters he heads.

It is telling that Esquivel, and his Journal cronies, think the newspaper is the proper place to discuss Glasrud's salary, but not the place to discuss openly and honestly, the half million dollar golden parachute, link, he and the APS Board have provided for Winston Brooks .

The Journal and Esquivel tried to downplay Glasrud's success at the charters; pointing to different demographics. Yet if you correct for the demographic differences, Glasrud's schools still out perform equivalent APS schools by a substantial margin.

Esquivel is throwing rocks from a glass house; the ongoing ethics and accountability scandal, the suppression of evidence of felony criminal misconduct involving APS administrators, widespread failure to educate, widespread student discipline issues, his own abdication as the senior most role model of the APS Student Standards of Conduct, unacceptable drop out rates, and widespread failure to make Annual Yearly Progress in many APS schools.

A friend shares the following;
If the law doesn't support you, pound on the evidence.
If the evidence doesn't support you, pound on the law.
It neither the law nor the evidence support you, pound on the table.

Esquivel would do well to concentrate on the real problems in the APS, and forget about trying to take Glasrud down a peg or two; he is clearly out of his league.




photo Mark Bralley