New Mexico branch, I am now a two-year resident of Gallup, and I’m here in support of the
Gallup Intertribal Community School.
To be entirely honest, I am not a fan of charter schools. My mother was a public school teacher,
my wife is currently a public school teacher in this district, and I have always been (and continue
to be) completely dedicated to the mission of public education. Too often charter schools have
been used to erode that mission, siphoning off valuable public dollars to bolster a particular
political worldview or religious ideology, and to chip away at the important collective bargaining
power of teacher unions.
I think that this school board, however, has a chance to reorient the purpose of charter schools.
Originally, charter schools were used as small-scale centers of pedagogical experimentation.
Those teaching methods which seemed particularly effective with students were then applied to
the broader public school system, while those methods found ineffective were abandoned. When
they are held to this original purpose, charter schools can be powerful allies for a school district.
I have never lived in a school district with as much need for pedagogical experimentation as
GMCS. From my perspective, as a professor at the university, the students here have been
perennially underserved – the Native American students in particular. In fact, last year’s report
from the New Mexico Higher Education Department ranked both Miyamura and Gallup High
Schools among the top five in the state requiring college remediation. 77% of students from
those high schools fail to be college-ready by the time they graduate. That is unacceptable and
only contributes to the lack of economic opportunity in our community.
It would be delusional to blame the school board for this failure. I think most of us here
recognize that the intertwined evils of poverty and racism have created a web in which many of
our students get trapped. But this charter school is an opportunity to chip away at that web in
ways our public school district, right now, cannot. The data makes it clear that Native American
students need help in this district, and you have a proposed charter school asking to help –
specifically – with that problem. The school board should not pass up this opportunity to
establish a local institution (not an out-of-state university or testing company!) – a local
institution dedicated to educating Native Americans in new and exciting ways that could
potentially be applied to the broader district. I trust that the leadership of this new school would
be committed to the kind of experimentation initially undertaken by charter programs, just as I
trust that our school board has the ability and the will to hold the charter accountable to that
commitment.
I implore the school board and the superintendent, then, to actively support this proposal and
build a solid working relationship with the Gallup Intertribal Community School. Thank you for
your time.