Who won? Denish or Martinez?

imho

It's a toss up; they both lost.

We all lost.

The end result of what is arguably the most important "debate" in the entire campaign, is that neither one of them has any great new ideas. Neither of them "gets" it.

Neither of them is willing to give teachers a seat at the table.

Neither or them is willing to tap a resource that includes literally hundreds of thousands of years of teaching experience. And that is just teachers. Less attention still, is paid to the other professionals and paraprofessional that work at the educational interface; the place where students meet the system, day in and day out, year after year after year.

It's not that their input is not invaluable, rather it is that
the good ol' boys just don't want to hear it, or read it, or
answer any questions about it.

Other than not "getting" it; neither shined as a public speaker.

Lt Gov Diane Denish droned sound bites.
She has bought some pretty good ones;

"... someone with no experience fighting for children ..."

is going to go a long way for her.

Long enough probably, that no one will think to ask Denish what is so special about her failed "experience fighting for children."

You can spend all the money you want on pre-K education,
but you can't demonstrate that it has done one bit of good.

The immediate testing supports her campaign rhetoric.
But if you look at the same kids in the 3rd grade (and I
have read as early as the 1st grade) they are virtually
indistinguishable from their classmates.
Their advantage disappears.

We get their little engines running full steam and then stick
them in cemetery seating* to put the fires right back out.

She's spending a lot of money with nothing to show for it.

She will never have to address that issue because she has enough money to bury us in slick campaign sound bites instead.

DA Susana Martinez treated every question as if it were
her last opportunity to win the game by means of some oratorical flourish.

She should have just answered the questions.

Oratorical skills can get you elected I suppose, but they shouldn't.

Our need in the Roundhouse is not for great orators.
We need character and we need courage.


*cemetery seating; take 30 kids who have absolutely
nothing in common save the year of their birth,
Seat them in five rows of six kids, and then move them
at exactly the same speed, in exactly the same direction
for 12 years.

Herd kittens for 12 years.

Keep them on the same page, in the same book,
on the same day, for 12 years, and then wring your hands
and wonder why half of them drop out before the end of the drive.

The fastest learners are held back so as not to make the
slower learners feel badly about themselves.

The slowest learners are made to move so fast,
they cannot possibly keep up.


The results are as devastating as they are utterly predictable.

And yet, that is still their plan.

Never mind that it does not work, and it never will again.