I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
New Mexico will join most of the other states in the country in banning corporal punishment in schools. Gov. Susana Martinez announced Wednesday that she signed the legislation that would ban the practice of allowing school personnel to strike students to punish them.
“The decision on whether or not to use corporal punishment on a child is one that is best left to a parent,” Martinez said in a statement this morning.
The use of corporal punishment was left up to the school district, and 36 of the state’s 89 school districts still have the option of using corporal punishment on the books.
According to Martinez’s office, there were 705 incidents of corporal punishment during the 2006 school year.
Anti-paddling advocates had urged Martinez to sign the bill earlier this week.
A bill to ban the practice passed the House and Senate by narrow margins. The legislation cleared the House on a 36-31 vote and passed the Senate on a 22-17 vote. Earlier in session, a version of the bill originating in the Senate failed on an 18-18 vote.
Opponents of the bill said that it helped teachers keep unruly students in line while proponents said that teaching children violence was not the answer to disciplining them.
