Ronchetti outlines education plan, Dems respond

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Mark Ronchetti, the Republican nominee for governor, says he has an eight-point plan to get New Mexico’s education system on track. It would involve redistricting money, including giving some to families to help pay for tutoring.

Ronchetti released his proposed plan Tuesday, just days after the New Mexico Department of Education released standardized test results showing only about a quarter to a third of students met the proficiency standard.

The eight points of Ronchetti’s plan include:

1. Make up for lost time
2. Put more education dollars in the classroom
3. Protect parents’ rights to engage in their child’s education
4. Better prepare our students for the workforce
5. Improve the system school-by-school, focus on developing great leaders
6. Early intervention: The key to success
7. Attack the truancy problem
8. School safety and attention to mental, emotional health

Ronchetti said he would implement this plan if elected in November.

KOB 4 reached out to the campaign for current Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. A campaign spokesperson shared the following statement:

“Governor Lujan Grisham believes that every New Mexico student, regardless of where they come from or who they are, should be able to access the high quality education they deserve. That’s why her administration invested more than $1 billion to improve New Mexico’s public schools, raised educator pay to be the highest in the southwest, brought retired educators back to work, created universal pre-k, made child care free for most New Mexico families, and built the most extensive tuition-free higher education program in the country. 

In contrast, Mark Ronchetti’s education ideas would disadvantage New Mexico’s most vulnerable students, especially rural and Native students, with a school voucher scheme that would drain funding from public schools by allowing wealthy parents to use taxpayer dollars to send their kids to private schools in cities, with no oversight or accountability for how tax dollars are spent. Ronchetti opposes funding for early childhood education that nearly 70% of New Mexicans support, and has said he would completely overturn the Opportunity Scholarship program allowing all New Mexicans to access a higher education. There’s a clear choice in this race between Gov. Lujan Grisham’s record of historic investments in New Mexico’s public schools, and Mark Ronchetti’s dangerous schemes to rip money out of the public school system.” 

Ronchetti‘s campaign made it clear during their news conference their plan does not involve private schools.