Albuquerque Journal
URL: http://www.abqjournal.com/west/opinion/240614westopinion10-24-09.htm
Saturday, October 24, 2009

Smaller Districts Work Better for Our Schools

By Dan Serrano
West Side Resident
It's time to have two school districts that work well rather than one, Albuquerque
Public Schools, which has grown too large to work well at all.
The West Side recently submitted a report to Secretary of Education Veronica
Garcia outlining the evidence that a new school district would work west of the river.
A move towards independence, however, should be taken very seriously. Over the
past several years, supporters of a new school district have methodically put together
the data and research to support the case for the new district. I believe we should
share that information with the entire city, now that we are advocating independence.
APS is clearly failing, as all evidence shows. The graduation rate, either 46 percent
or 63 percent, depending on which numbers are used, is clearly unacceptable. The
recent debacle over school graduation rate reporting only underscores that APS
cannot be counted on to deliver reliable results. In fact, APS is underperforming in
the areas of test scores, dropout rate, graduation rate, truancy, reading and math
proficiency, Adequate Yearly Progress, security and community involvement. The
school district is simply too big to perform in any of these areas.
Currently, it ranks as the 30th largest school district in the nation. Research shows
— in study after study — that smaller districts work better and give our kids a better
education.
The Rio Rancho school district is one case in point. After splitting off, it has
managed an excellent record of performance over the past 15 years. There is no
reason why our new West Side school district, or even APS once it is made leaner,
cannot achieve the same record as Rio Rancho. Our attitude is that once we allow
our best people to manage the system, it will undoubtedly get better.
When school districts split, and they do all the time, the first question asked is
about the funding. Can the school make it financially? We took this question very
seriously, and so we asked Casey Financial Consulting for an answer. The reputable
company came back and said yes, the new West Side school district, whose
boundaries are currently proposed from the Rio Grande west and from Central north
to the Rio Rancho school district boundary, will be financially stable with no tax
increases.
In the event of a smaller West Side school district, we strongly believe that there
would be better achievement and performance by our students. The dropout rate will
go down and the graduation rate would go up, as they did in Rio Rancho. Test scores
are shown to go up in smaller, more focused districts, so we can expect them to rise
here as well.
One of the best advantages of a smaller school district is local control. Because of
APS's size, it's virtually impossible for the school district to listen to parents and
community leaders. If we are granted our own school district, we would have a
school board made up of five members, all from the West Side. Local control is a
clear advantage to helping our kids do better.
The question has been asked about having two administrations, that there might be
bloated bureaucracy. Well, that's what we have now. If the West Side creates its own
district, it will have a real incentive for a fit and trim administration, and its own
school board to watch over it. Parents who are involved in their schools want low
administration costs and will see to it that it stays that way. We think it's a good issue
to raise, and will create a higher level of efficiency that will work out in our city's
favor.
Another plus is community involvement. APS shuts out community involvement
because it can't adjust the numerous voices and maintain operations, so it simply
shuts down comment. In our district, it will be the opposite. We will invite parental
involvement and comment. Those voices will go to the schools or the school board
and get a hearing — and get heard. That's the way a school district should be run.
The transition to a new district is another issue worth discussing. Change can scare
people, it's true. In this case we expect that almost all of the teachers and
administration would be transitioned to a new district. No one would forcibly lose
their jobs. The new district fully expects to create new collective bargaining
agreements. Teachers, educational assistants, secretaries, clerical staff, janitorial and
operations personnel can all rest assured their employment will continue. In fact, we
welcome them all.
Therefore, what are we proposing? We're proposing a smaller school district, a
much more manageable district, a district that is financially viable right from the
beginning and requires no tax hikes, a district that caters to kids and listens to parents
and invites parents to speak their minds, a district that creates a better education,
higher test scores, lower truancy, and a safer place to go to school.
Our school district would have the same demographic makeup as APS, so it would
have proper diversity. It would have five school board members concentrating just
on our district, a smooth transition, and a motivated, alert district ready to make our
schools better.
The important thing to remember is that this is in the best interest of APS as well.
It may seem to some that getting smaller is wrong, that we should always get bigger.
But it's not true. Sometimes getting smaller helps you succeed, to manage what you
have efficiently. We believe it's in the best interests of the West Side and APS that
there be a new West Side school district.
Change can be hard, we know that. Yet, it's our responsibility to move ahead with
a new district when it's so clearly in the best interests of the kids and the West Side.
As it becomes clear to our education leaders that a new district is the right course to
take, it will be difficult to stop an idea whose time has come. We should take the
right steps now, because it's best for our children.
If you would like to see our full prospectus on the West Side school district, where
you can read about each issue in detail, please go to www.ABQPASS.org.
Dan Serrano is the chairman of PASS — Partnerships Advancing Student Success.