If you've an interest in character education in the Albuquerque Public Schools

there are three documents that you should read.

The first is called the Aspen Declaration, link.
It was written in July, 1992.

United States Senator Pete
Domenici helped write it.

He helped sell it to congress
who appropriated a bunch
of money to sell it to students
in the Albuquerque Public Schools.

It came in the form of a specific model for teaching about character called Character Counts!. The model was later adopted by the APS board of education by unanimous resolution.  The second document to read; the resolution  they passed, link, which reads in significant part;

3. That the Albuquerque Public Schools is committed to creating models of ethical behavior among all adults who serve students and schools;

4. That the core curriculum should continue to give explicit attention to character development as an ongoing part of school instruction;

That year and every year since, the board has told students via their Student Behavior Handbook; the third document you should read, link, page 3 at least, whereon it is written; students;

are expected to "model and promote (honest accountability to) the Pillars of Character Counts! ... link.

This is not about "Character Counts!" specifically.  It happens to be in this case because The Pillars of Character Counts! are the current standards of conduct for students and have been since 1994.

It is about the abject failure of the leadership of the APS to make good on a solemn promise to provide opportunities for the nearly 90,000 of our sons and daughters who attend the APS to develop their good character in an environment that is deliberately supportive of their efforts.  It is about reneging on their promise to be good role models of honest accountability to higher standards of conduct.

aps image

In one month, Dr Luis Valentino will take charge of the APS.  He will become the senior-most administrative role model of student standards of conduct.

Or will he?

APS Brad Winter, interim
Supt and former COO.  He
still won't tell the truth about
spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

Interim Supt Brad Winter would not (will not) step up to honest accountability to the same standards of conduct he expects students to embrace.

• Former Supt Winston Brooks would not.
• Former Supt Beth Everitt would not.
• Former Supt Joey Vigil would not.
• Former Supt Peter Horoschak would not.
• No school board member ever has, will now, nor likely, will ever.

APS' efforts to get students to embrace character and courage and honor have fallen short because of an ignoble want of honest to God role models.  Not one APS "leader" has ever been honestly accountable as a role model of anything.

The APS School Board Code of Ethics, link, is
by their own free admission, utterly unenforceable.

It's one thing to say you are accountable to a set of standards; it is a whole other, to prove it.  Yet, if it is true, if one is truly accountable, it is easy to prove.  All you have to do is point to the standards and then point to the due process by which you are accountable.

The leadership of the APS can point to neither really; not high standards and not honest to God, real accountability to those standards even against their will.

They enjoy the aide and abet of the ilk of Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz and the news directors at the NMBA affiliate stations in Albuquerque.

If Walz and the rest were about informing the democracy they would investigate and report upon the ethics, standards and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

If only to inform the democracy that there is no scandal; there is no cover up.  Incoming Supt Valentino will take charge of an oligarchy whose members are honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct within their public service.

Ayn Rand argued;

To fear to face an issue 
is to believe the worst is true.

Walz and the establishment's "press" will not face the issue because the worst is true; the leadership of the APS spends hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars every year in order to not be accountable even to the law.  Witness the three quarters of a million dollars they've spent in a non-viable defense of their unconstitutional restrictions on public forums and Marty Esquivel's ego.

Walz and the rest are not complacent.
They aren't unknowingly ignorant of the scandal.
They are complicit in its cover up.

Walz and they are complicit in the cover up of an ethics, standards and accountability crises in the leadership of the APS.




photos Mark Bralley