N.M. Schools Get a C on Report Card

Thursday, January 10, 2008
By Zsombor Peter
Journal Staff Writer
The C that New Mexico just earned on Education Week's latest national report card— matching the national average— looks simple enough.
But there's more to it. While it confirms the state's poor scores in math and reading, it gives above-average marks for New Mexico's education policies and its ability to prepare high school students for college or the workplace.
Project director Chris Swanson cautioned against reading too much into the results.
"It's a starting point for meaningful conversation, but not the final word," he said during a conference call with reporters.
Released Wednesday, the 2008 Quality Counts report grades each state on how it is doing in six broad educational categories: student success indicators; academic achievement; standards, assessment and accountability policies; student preparedness for high school, college and the workplace; teacher policies; and funding.
Overall, states graded lowest in academic achievement, earning an average D plus. That was the lowest collective grade in all six categories.
"So there's a lot of low performance going on out there," Swanson said.
But even among low performers, New Mexico's historically poor scores in math and reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress pushed the state nearly to the bottom of the bunch.
It came in 46th among all 50 states and the District of Columbia. New Mexico's eighth-graders ranked dead last in reading.
But it was hardly all doom and gloom for the Land of Enchantment.
The report placed New Mexico two grades above average for policies it has in place to assure a strong standards, assessment and accountability system (16th in the nation) and to define exactly what it means to be ready for high school, college and the workplace (eighth in the nation).
So why the disconnect between state policies and student achievement?
Swanson, speaking in general terms, said it usually takes time for new and improved policies to "bear fruit."
New Mexico Education Secretary Veronica Garcia could not be reached for comment. But in a department-issued news release, she attributed the state's "struggle to score better" to its poverty.
New Mexico ranked dead last for the proportion of its children— 46.7 percent— from families with incomes twice the poverty level or below, one of the report's indicators for student success.
New Mexico ranked 49th in overall indicators for student success, but not without at least one bright spot: It had the highest proportion of eligible children— 85.1 percent— enrolled in kindergarten.
Funding also proved a mixed bag for New Mexico, Swanson said.
The state has long prided itself on having one of the most equitable formulas for funding public schools in the country. A recent study commissioned by a task force headed by Rep. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, found the same.
Education Week's report card, however, placed a caveat on that claim.
While its report found per-student funding highly equitable, it also found funding equity to be below average among districts.

Vote may cut sentences for 19,500 crack inmates

CNN -

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Buoyed by a Supreme Court ruling, some 19,500 federal inmates and their families, most of them black, are hoping the U.S. Sentencing Commission is ready to make its recent easing of crack cocaine punishment guidelines retroactive.

The seven-member commission, which provides guidelines for sentencing federal convicts, meets Tuesday to discuss retroactivity, and a vote is likely.

Inmate family representatives and other advocates of retroactive easing said a Supreme Court decision Monday could only improve chances the commission would dismantle yet another portion of the long-criticized disparity in sentences for crack and powder cocaine offenses. Crack is predominantly used by blacks; powder cocaine, predominantly by whites.

Making the guidelines retroactive is opposed by the Bush administration. A senior Justice Department official warned Tuesday that retroactive guidelines could have a disastrous effect on crime-riddled communities that are not ready to receive crack offenders who could be released early from prison as a result.

"Areas that already are seeing an increase in violent crime -- this is going to affect those areas dramatically," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the commission had not formally acted.

The Justice Department previously opposed retroactive changes to sentences for LSD and marijuana offenders.

In two decisions Monday, the Supreme Court upheld judges who rejected federal sentencing guidelines as too harsh and imposed more lenient prison terms, including one for crack offenses.

In the crack case, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's majority opinion said Derrick Kimbrough's 15-year sentence was acceptable, although guidelines called for 19 to 22 years. "In making that determination, the judge may consider the disparity between the guidelines' treatment of crack and powder cocaine offenses," Ginsburg said.

Kimbrough is black.

So are 86 percent of the 19,500 inmates who might see their prison terms for crack offenses reduced if the commission approves retroactive easing. By contrast, just over a quarter of those convicted of powder cocaine crimes last year were black.

The sentencing commission recently changed the guidelines to reduce the disparity in prison time for the two crimes. New guidelines took effect November 1.

Under the commission's plan, retroactive sentence reductions would not be automatic. A judge would have to review each inmate to decide whether a reduction was merited.

"The Kimbrough decision is a tremendous victory for all who believe that the crack and powder cocaine disparity is unjust," said Mary Price, vice president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums.

Kimbrough's case, though, did not present the ultimate fairness question. Congress wrote the harsher treatment for crack into a law that sets a mandatory minimum of five years in prison for trafficking in 5 grams of crack cocaine or 100 times as much powder cocaine.

Seventy percent of crack defendants get the mandatory minimum.

Kimbrough is among the remaining 30 percent who, under the guidelines, are supposed to receive even more prison time for trafficking in more than 5 grams of crack.

Neither the court's decision nor the commission's guidelines affect the minimum sentences, which only Congress can alter.

Calling the court decision a "minor fix," U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton of Washington, said, "The ultimate fix has to be done by Congress." Last month, Walton endorsed retroactive easing of the guidelines on behalf of the Criminal Law Committee of the federal judiciary.

In previous years, the sentencing commission reduced penalties for crimes involving marijuana, LSD and OxyContin, which are primarily committed by whites, and made those decisions retroactive.

New Mexico gets low rank on binge drinking

By Sue Vorenberg (Contact)
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Albuquerque Tribune

A study that shows declining rates of binge drinking in New Mexico might not be cause for celebration.

The state came in 38th overall in a 2007 ranking of healthy states by the United Health Foundation. That's a bit better than last year, when the state came in 40th.

And in binge drinking, the state was ranked the 10th lowest out of 50 states, with 13 percent of the population engaging in the practice.

But some experts find that statistic odd in a state that's known for its problems with alcoholism and drunken driving.

"The number is surprisingly low for New Mexico," said Terry Huertaz, executive director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "Our statistics have always been focused on crashes, fatalities, and our state is in a slight decline, but we still have a lot of work to do."

The binge drinking data were gathered by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But state experts aren't so sure about their overall relevance in the fight against alcoholism, said Karen Armitage, chief medical officer for the state Department of Health.

"While it looks like we're not doing terribly badly around binge drinking, we have some outcomes that make us question whether that's cause for celebration," Armitage said.

"We still have violent deaths, vehicle crashes, homicides and suicides. These types of violent deaths are often tied to alcoholism and drugs."

And by drunken driving statistics, it seems the binge drinking rates - measured by a person having five or more drinks in one sitting - aren't all that low, Huertaz said.

"The average person arrested for drunken driving is twice the legal limit - so there's some serious drinking going on," Huertaz said.

The state also ranked well in its low prevalence of cancer deaths and obesity, although the obesity number is a bit deceptive, Armitage said.

In 1990, the state ranked sixth, with 9.8 percent of the population meeting the criteria for obesity. In 2007, the state ranked 11th lowest, with 22.9 percent of the population meeting the criteria.

"So the rate has almost doubled, and we're still doing better than a lot of other states," Armitage said. "All states have the same problem with obesity. We're all getting fatter."

New Mexico's rates are likely lower than others because of the mild climate and ample opportunities for outdoor activities, she said.

On the negative side, the report found a high rate of uninsured population at 22.9 percent; a high percentage of children living in poverty at 23.2 percent; and a low rate of access to adequate prenatal care.

That information is relatively similar to problems for other Southwestern states with rural populations, such as Arizona, Armitage said.

"One by one we're addressing the issues, but New Mexico has to struggle with geographic distances, poverty and limited access to health care," Armitage said.

A Bank of Their Own: Latin America Casting Off Washington's Shackles

"The bank, which will be officially launched on Dec. 5, will make development loans to its member countries, with a focus on regional economic integration. This is important because these countries want to increase their trade, energy and commercial relationships for both economic and political reasons, just as the European Union has done over the last 50 years. The Inter-American Development Bank, which focuses entirely on Latin America, devotes only about 2 percent of its lending to regional integration."

by Mark Weisbrot; Alternet; November 02, 2007

"Developing nations must create their own mechanisms of finance instead of suffering under those of the IMF and the World Bank, which are institutions of rich nations . . . it is time to wake up."

That was Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil -- not Washington's nemesis, Hugo Chavez -- speaking in the Republic of Congo just two weeks ago. Although our foreign policy establishment remains in cozy denial about it, the recognition that Washington's economic policies and institutions have failed miserably in Latin America is broadly shared among leaders in the region. Commentators here -- Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the editorial boards and op-ed contributors in major newspapers -- have taken pains to distinguish "good" leftist presidents (Lula of Brazil and Michele Bachelet of Chile) from the "bad" ones -- Chavez of Venezuela, Rafael Correa of Ecuador, Evo Morales of Bolivia and, depending on the pundit, sometimes Nestor Kirchner of Argentina.

But the reality is that Chavez (most flamboyantly) and his Andean colleagues are just saying out loud what everyone else believes. So official Washington, and most of the media, has been somewhat surprised by the rapid consolidation of a new "Bank of the South" proposed by Chavez just last year as an alternative to the Washington-dominated International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank.

The media has been reluctant to take the new bank seriously, and some continue to call the institution, pejoratively, "Chavez's bank." But it has been joined by Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay and Paraguay. And just two weeks ago, Colombia, one of the Bush administration's few remaining allies in the region and the third-largest recipient of U.S. aid (after Israel and Egypt), announced that it wanted in. Et tu, Uribe?

The bank, which will be officially launched on Dec. 5, will make development loans to its member countries, with a focus on regional economic integration. This is important because these countries want to increase their trade, energy and commercial relationships for both economic and political reasons, just as the European Union has done over the last 50 years. The Inter-American Development Bank, which focuses entirely on Latin America, devotes only about 2 percent of its lending to regional integration.

Unlike the Washington-based international financial institutions, the new bank will not impose economic policy conditions on its borrowers. Such conditions are widely believed to have been a major cause of Latin America's unprecedented economic failure over the last 26 years, the worst long-term growth performance in more than a century.

The bank is expected to start with capital of about $7 billion, with all member countries contributing. It will be governed primarily on a one-country, one-vote basis.

How ironic is it that such an institution would be called "Chavez's bank," while nobody calls the IMF or the World Bank "Bush's bank?" The IMF and World Bank have 185 member countries but the United States calls the shots; it has a formal veto in the IMF, but its power is much greater than that, with Europe and Japan having almost never voted against Washington in the institution's 63-year history. The rest of the world, i.e., the majority and the countries that bear the brunt of the institutions' policies, has little to no say in decision making.

Politically, the new bank is another Declaration of Independence for South America, which as a result of epoch-making changes in the last few years is now more independent of the United States than Europe is. The most important change that has brought this about -- other than the populist ballot-box revolt that elected left-of-center governments in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Uruguay and Venezuela -- has been the collapse of the IMF-led "creditor's cartel" in the region. This was the main avenue of U.S. influence, and there's not much left of it. Of course the U.S. government still has some clout in the region, but without the ability to cut off credit to disobedient governments, its power is vastly reduced.

The need for alternative regional economic institutions, for both development lending and finance, is becoming increasingly accepted by most of the world. Ten years ago, in the wake of the Asian financial crisis, there was a whole series of proposals, even books by prominent economists, on how to reform "the international financial architecture." The current crisis triggered by the collapse of subprime-mortgage-backed securities may provoke another such discussion. But the fact is, a full decade after the Asian crisis, the rich country governments have made no significant movement toward reform. New leaders of the IMF and the World Bank were appointed in the last few months, and by tradition, these have to be a European and an American.

That tradition was honored, despite calls from a majority of the member countries and scores of NGOs and think tanks to open up the search process. For the World Bank, the Bush administration even managed to add insult to injury by appointing Robert Zoellick, a neoconservative in the mold of his intensely disliked predecessor, Paul Wolfowitz, to run the beleaguered institution. Without even the smallest symbolic changes, it is hard to imagine more substantive changes, e.g., in the voting structure, taking place in the foreseeable future.

With reform at the top blocked, positive changes will have to come at the regional, and of course, most importantly, at the national level. Latin Americans are doing their part, and the world will surely thank them for it.

Not everyone is happy to see the old order challenged. An insider at the Inter-American Development Bank told the Financial Times: "With the money of Venezuela and political will of Argentina and Brazil, this is a bank that could have lots of money and a different political approach. No one will say this publicly, but we don't like it."

Apparently, these institutions that preach the virtues of international competition are not so enthusiastic when it breaks into their own monopolistic market.

Albuquerque center unites police, services to help victims of violence

Albuquerque Tribune
By Maggie Shepard
Wednesday, October 24, 2007

In the criminal justice system, rape and domestic violence victims willing to come forward have had to tell their stories as many as six times.

First to detectives. Then nurses, service providers, prosecutors. And still others.

That's all going to change.

After a year of intense collaboration, Albuquerque police, the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department, the District Attorney's Office, State Police and area victim services groups have found a place that allows victims to tell their stories just once.

It's one floor within a 31,000-square-foot building.

It's called the Family Advocacy Center, at the northeast corner of Silver Avenue and Sixth Street Southwest.

In addition to the services for rape and domestic violence victims, the Police Department is moving 73 of its homicide, violent crimes and crimes against children detectives, plus school resource officers and others, to the building.

"So, it will be divided now (between) crimes against property and crimes against people," Police Chief Ray Schultz said, noting the change from the way the department has been organized for several decades.

The Sheriff's Department also is moving some of its detectives to the building.

The center is modeled after a similar building in Scottsdale, Ariz., where Schultz worked before taking his post here in spring 2005.

Officers from Scottsdale were on hand for the ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday morning to see what ideas they could take back home with them.

Scottsdale Sgt. Joseph LeDuc said Albuquerque's center is larger and more technologically advanced.

Schultz said while the idea for the one-stop shop for victims of violence was under discussion before he took his position, he was able to connect the Scottsdale unit with the movers and shakers in Albuquerque.

Work really got started on the project a year ago. Funding was solicited, with the United Way of Central New Mexico providing about $1 million in startup costs. Albuquerque taxpayers will be supplying $500,000 in rent for the next year at least.

Service providers - including the Rape Crisis Center, Enlace Communitario, Para Los Ni¤os, Legal Aid, S.A.N.E. nurses and the Asian Family Center - have offices along the freshly painted hallways.

State Children, Youth and Families Department employees also have office space in the center.

The center's concept and design is logical - and goes a long way in warming what is normally a "cold system" for victims, District Attorney Kari Brandenburg said.

"This will help in getting them (victims) invested in the system," she said.

The current system can be challenging for victims after deciding to come forward - a difficult decision in itself.

In the case of rape, the victim usually reports the crime to police, then is transported to the University of New Mexico Hospital, then sometimes back to the police station.

As the case progresses, victims meet with prosecutors in their office Downtown. Agencies offering counseling or help were scattered around town.

Now, said Sandra Esvarvida, the program director for S.A.N.E., whose nurses conduct the medical exam, any rape or molestation victim will be brought to the center.

There, an advocate from one of the service providers will join them to help them navigate the entire system.

"They will know that everyone is working together to help them in that difficult journey from victim to survivor," Esvarvida said.

LeDuc said that once victims in Scottsdale learned of his center, the number of reported crimes increased by more than 60 percent. He added that successful prosecution rates increased, because of closer ties between attorneys and detectives working in the center.

State Police Chief Faron Segotta said he expects the center to quickly earn a red-tape-free reputation that he hopes will bring in victims reporting attacks, assaults and molestation from throughout the city and from the surrounding counties.

Schultz said that reputation and the increased reporting of crime is exactly what he hopes for from the center.

"This will be a place where people can self-report, and where they can come and we can all share that interview," Schultz said. "And they can get help."

Dream Act!

Kate Riley / Times staff columnist
Seattle Times
Maria's hopes rest on a DREAM

Five years ago, I wrote about Maria, a fresh high-school graduate who punctuated her talk about future plans with an occasional teenage giggle.

Though she had a University of Washington acceptance letter, Maria's future was not so bright. Maria — not her real name — had been living in the United States illegally since her parents brought her here at age 5. Thanks to the state Legislature's 2006 decision, students in Maria's predicament could pay lower in-state tuition — she could afford her degree. She graduated with a GPA north of 3.5 and honors in her department.

Now the girl is a shrewd and gutsy woman at the start of her second year at a Puget Sound area law school. Last week when we talked, she requested to do a pre-publication review of my column.

Uh, no! I told the budding lawyer. But I had to smile.

My young friend has matured immensely but still labors under her secret and the nation's stunted immigration system that threatens to dim her future. By all rights, save one, she should have the world by the tail. She is dogged by questions: When she graduates, will she be able to take the bar exam? Will she be able to keep helping low-income people as she's done during her internship this summer for a nonprofit legal-aid organization?

"The DREAM Act is my only hope," said Maria, echoing words she spoke when I checked in with her two years ago. "I hope and pray for it."

The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act of 2007 would give certain young people like Maria a chance to earn legal residency if they enlist in the military or attend college for at least two years. They must have been brought to the United States before age 15, lived here for more than five years, graduated from high school and have good moral character.

America needs comprehensive immigration reform. But after hopelessly stalled attempts this year, it likely won't happen until after the 2008 presidential election. Nevertheless, the DREAM Act — a less-controversial part of the debate — should be peeled off.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is expected to try that this week. The Senate majority whip expects to offer the measure as an amendment to the defense-authorization bill, his spokeswoman said. The connection is that young people can earn legal status through military service.

Support is bipartisan. Among 26 co-sponsors are prominent Democrats, including presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and both of Washington's senators. Leading Republicans John McCain of Arizona, Richard Lugar of Indiana and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska are on board too.

But the 60 votes needed for anything to pass the Senate these days is a high hurdle, especially with the horse-trading bound to go on over defense spending.

I hope these young people are not lost in the politics. They have beaten the odds, many of them succeeding despite low family incomes and parents without much, if any, formal education themselves. Despite the dimmest of prospects, these kids have not only survived but achieved. In her high school, Maria was an elected student-body officer for three years.

Yet, in the most important ways, they must live in shadows, suffering not from their own actions but their parents' decisions to bring them into the country illegally.

These are kids on your daughter's soccer team and at your son's birthday party. A 2005 Pew Hispanic Center report estimated 1.7 million children under age 18 are living in the United States illegally.

Lucy Bottomley is another who has been caught in her parents' mistakes. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement intended to deport her two days ago — even though she was just five credits short of her Washington State University bachelor's degree. Brought to the United States at 10 from her native England, the aspiring teacher was stunned to learn at age 20 that her American stepfather never applied for her permanent legal status.

Fortunately, immigration officials relented and deferred her deportation until the New Year. She'll still be sent to a country she barely remembers.

Are Maria and Lucy the kind of young people our society should throw away — especially after investing in their public education?

I don't think so.

Only the DREAM Act will help Bottomley stay in the country she calls home, where she can teach young people to speak up for themselves as she has; only the DREAM Act will ensure the bright young lawyer, Maria, will be able to speak for low-income people without the means or wherewithal to advocate for themselves.

It's time for their dreams and the dreams of so many others to become a reality.

Party Patrol Says Ruling Won't Alter Practices

Party Patrol Says Ruling Won't Alter Practices

Albuquerque Journal
By Jeff Proctor
Journal Staff Writer
Albuquerque police party patrol officials say a recent court ruling that found three of its officers guilty of a Fourth Amendment violation won't change the way the unit does business.
That's because many of the issues that arose during the case already had been addressed, party patrol Lt. Mike Geier said.
U.S. District Court Judge William "Chip" Johnson ruled the officers were liable for entering Mary Roybal's home on April 8, 2005, without a search warrant. The action violated Roybal's protection against illegal search and seizure.
Geier pointed to a form party patrol officers use— which is different from the standard APD incident report— to document a bust made by the unit. It requires officers to list the grounds for the citation and whether consent was given to enter a residence.
Officers began using the new form after complaints against the unit prompted APD to hammer out some new procedures. The new form was created with the help of Albuquerque's American Civil Liberties Union affiliate.
Those talks, which began in April 2006, also led to party patrol officers stopping the practice of busting every underage kid at a party— regardless of whether a teen was in possession of alcohol.
Geier said that of the 1,400 parties the unit has broken up since he came aboard in 2002, "only about a half dozen times have we not been given consent to enter a home."
In those cases, party patrol officers always prefer to obtain a search warrant, he said. But in the case of an emergency— such as a teen choking on his or her vomit— another crime being committed on the property or officers pursuing a criminal, police will enter without a warrant.
Would an incident such as the one in 2005 happen today?
"I would say no, because our officers are much more reluctant to go in without really questioning whether it's the right thing to do," Geier said.