Editor,

Once again, a member of the traditional education crew has passively dismissed a point I’ve made without finding any evidence against it (Mr. Mooday made an unsupported side comment about data on test scores in his recent piece). I think this is the fifth or sixth time it happened. There must be a reason for it; maybe there was some flaw in the method of presenting “sources” and “negative controls”. After doing some soul searching, I have realized how unfair I’ve been and would like to offer the following apology to each candidate.

To Mr. Mooday, I’m sorry that I only included an aggregate of every school in New Mexico in my previous letter as a comparison to Los Alamos. I didn’t realize that wasn’t enough for you and in the future, I will make up a few more to go with it. I should have known that you were arguing in bad faith and I should have accounted for that. I’m also sorry about how much pushback you had from saying: “Its ultimate goal is to prepare future workers for an endless cycle of returning to government issued certification and training courses to meet ever evolving corporate needs blah blah blah.” to a high school student. As you said earlier, “CRT/DEI ideologies are simply re-hashed Marxism”, and I’m sorry that you don’t know the definition of any of those terms and I hope that you can learn more in the future.

To Ms. Aguilar Garcia, I’m sorry about the pushback you had when Wendy Marcus pointed out that the policies that are the center of your campaign are already in place. Finding this information is so difficult; who would think to search “LAHS course catalog” before running for the school board?

To Mr. Jaramillo, I’m sorry that education has failed you. 

If only you paid more attention in school, you would know that mRNA is not the genetic material and does not alter DNA. I’m also sorry about your lack of understanding on other topics as well:

“Preferably no masks. They are dangerous and unsanitary and are not being used properly.”

I’m sorry that you forgot how to properly attribute information you found online, as seen in your “wartime pastor” rant. In the future, I’m sure that teachers in Los Alamos will be able to help teach you better critical thinking skills, if you so accept.

To Mr. Hampton, I’m sorry that you don’t know how to find reliable sources of information:

I hope that you can learn more from UNM-LA if you are elected to the advisory board.

Finally, to all the candidates, I’m sorry that the center of your campaign (the idea that the school system is declining) holds no weight under scrutiny (https://losalamosreporter.com/2021/10/29/in-response-to-school-rankings-you-cant-ignore-the-data-you-dont-like). I’m sorry that none of you are consistent on what you mean by a traditional education:

“traditional classroom teachings of Math, Science, Language Arts, Social Studies etc.” (Jaramillo)

“Reviving the work study and trades/vocational programs at the HS.” (Garcia)

“Keep LGBTQ Books And Celebrations Out Of Los Alamos Public Schools” (Fox)

“[stopping the] LGBQ Trans movement that’s going on” (Jaramillo)

No one would have thought to have an informed campaign, so that was an unfair expectation. In the future, I’ll be more patient with a general lack of understanding from school board candidates.

In all seriousness, election day is Tuesday. Let’s elect candidates with values that represent Los Alamos.

Teddy Warner