So, I’m reading this article about New Mexico’s graduation rates (subscription) and I come across the following section:
Frustrated by the varying ways states calculated their graduation and dropout rates, the National Governors Association challenged governors to agree to a set standard.
Gov. Bill Richardson and other governors signed a compact with the association in 2005, agreeing to calculate graduation rates in a uniform manner. By 2012, all states are expected to report their rates.
Meanwhile, a national report issued this week by Education Week put New Mexico’s graduation rate for the 2003-2004 school year at 60.1 percent. But for that same year, the state of New Mexico— which used a different formula— reported a graduation rate of 89 percent to the federal government.
“The first step is getting the more accurate count,” Curran said. “You can’t adequately deal with the problem until you know the scope of it.”
The rest of the article points out that only an estimated 58% of the class of 2008, because of the number of high school students that are behind in their credits, will actually graduate. No matter how you look at it, that means that New Mexico is losing ground in providing its students with a high school diploma.
Which kind of leaves you wondering how Governor Bill Richardson decided to address this continued failure on the education front while hitting the campaign trail. Well, as luck would have it. I have the answer. First, according to Dan Brown of the Huffington Post, Richardson tried to avoid dealing with the education failures:
Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico, former Congressman and U.S. Secretary of Energy, does not list education among the seven issues on his presidential committee website . Richardson has made strides for education as Governor of New Mexico, so the omission is baffling.
Actually Mr. Brown, the strides haven’t been all that great, so the omission is anything but baffling. However, as much as the Governor would like to, you can’t ignore education issue, so Richardson did ultimately have to put up an education platform. Hmm, he forgot to mention that he would avoid repeating all of the mistakes he has made in New Mexico.