News Channel 10 is reporting good news: New Mexico won’t be eliminating evolution from the state’s science standards. This just happened. A couple of days ago. In 2017.
The Public Education Department says final standards will restore references to the 4.6 billion-year age of the Earth, the rise in global temperatures over the past century and the process of evolution due to genetic variation. A complete version of the final standards was not released.
Public comments at a packed public hearing Monday were overwhelmingly critical of state revisions to a set of standards developed by a consortium of states and the National Academy of Sciences.
Back in September it came to light that small science-type things like “evolution” and “climate change” had been omitted from the newly revised curriculum. Luckily, it seems like public pressure has worked here. Revising the curriculum is something that everybody agrees on, as New Mexico was ranked 49th out of 51 states/territories in “quality of education” last year. New ways of teaching are clearly in order, and maybe New Mexico can step up its spending per student as well, since being ranked 34th is mediocre by virtually any criteria. It also doesn’t help when your Republican governor stonewalls all educational budget plans in order to grandstand just a couple of months into the new fiscal year.
New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez stripped all funding for the state Legislature along with state universities and colleges from a proposed budget for the coming fiscal year, using her veto pen Friday to escalate a confrontation with lawmakers over how to shore up shaky state finances.
Martinez also vetoed a $350 million package of tax and fee increases designed by the Democratic-led legislature to stabilize funding for public schools, state courts and many state agencies recently hit with spending cuts to plug a lingering state deficit.
Which is why Democrats went to court last montj to stop right-wing nutjobs from destroying New Mexico’s future.
Ten vetoes by Republican Gov. Susana Martinez have been invalidated by a state district judge because the governor missed deadlines or failed to explain her reasoning, allowing the piecemeal legislation on economic development, high school curricula and hemp production to take effect Thursday.
Judge Sarah Singleton denied a request from the governor to delay implementation of the bills after siding earlier in the month with members of the Democratic-led Legislature.
The validity of evolution and climate change do not go away simply because you’re a dummy. Teachers are here to help make sure that we pass on our better ideas to the next generations, not our dumb ones.