Tutor: APS ‘insufficient, apathetic’

The amount of students attending Albuquerque Public Schools that don’t graduate is 37 percent and, of those, many have trouble earning their GEDs, getting jobs or attending college, GED Preparatory Program officials said.

A group of graduate students at UNM hopes to change that. The Community Health Equity Working Group (CHEWG), Youth Development Inc. and UNM’s College of Education created the GED Preparatory Program to tutor students hoping to earn their GEDs.

Graduate student and Co-founder of CHEWG Douglas Daugherty said Albuquerque has had dismal graduation rates for 61 years.

“I would argue that the whole entire system is failing our children,” he said. “One-third of all graduating high school seniors enrolling at UNM must be placed in 100-level classes due to the lack of preparedness by the Albuquerque Public School System.”

He said New Mexico currently ranks 49th in the nation for quality of education, and the United States ranks 43rd worldwide in percentage of Gross Domestic Product spent on education. APS has a graduation rate of roughly 63 percent, and a student body of approximately 90,000 students.

Co-coordinator of the GED Preparatory Program Tony Padilla said students drop out of school for many reasons, but that the system is usually to blame.

“Some of them are teen parents, some are homeless, many have been criminalized or brutalized by the police, some come from families that care little for them or their potential, but almost all are the victims of a system that is by design insufficient and apathetic,” he said. “These children are being left behind, and I would definitely term this situation as an epidemic.”

UNM’s GED Preparatory Program held its first orientation for tutors last week. The program currently has 20 tutors, but Daugherty said there are three times as many students.

Padilla said many students in the program hope to pursue degrees at UNM or CNM.

“Whenever I ask the class who among them intends to go to either CNM or UNM, an overwhelming majority raise their hands,” he said.

For more information on how to become a tutor or take the class, contact Tony Padilla at (505) 712-9901 or tpad79@live.com.