Some 32,000 young New Mexicans between 16 and 24 are neither in school nor working, and the establishment's answer is the same it always is: write a bigger check. Meanwhile in Birmingham, nearly 5,000 students hadn't registered for the coming school year just days before classes started — a system so disconnected from families it can't even get kids in the door.
The Albuquerque Journal published an opinion piece from Future Focused Education executive director Kim Lanoy-Sandoval laying out the damage: 32,000 disconnected youth costing the state an estimated $623 million annually, and roughly 5,000 high school seniors failing to graduate each year with an estimated economic impact of $40 million. Only 45% of New Mexico students in grades six through 12 report a sense of belonging at school. Just 38% report self-efficacy. The numbers are a confession of institutional failure.
Lanoy-Sandoval's solution? More investment. Paid internships, guaranteed basic income pilots, youth behavioral health career pathways — all requiring, in her words, that the state "predictably invest in what we know works." She insists the 32,000 disconnected youth "are not the problem" but rather "32,000 reasons to rethink education." The rethinking, somehow, always ends at the same destination: more taxpayer money routed through the same system that produced the failure.
The Journal framed the piece as a call to "listen to young people" and "bet boldly" on them. What it buried: not a word about giving parents the power to pull their kids out of a system that is failing them. The entire argument assumes the institutional pipeline is the only pipeline.
Down in Alabama, AL.com reported that Birmingham City Schools still had 4,802 unregistered students as of August 6, with the first day of class set for Monday. The district had been calling families over the summer to get children registered. In July, nearly 10,000 students were unregistered. The district's pitch to parents: completing registration "helps ensure your child is ready for a smooth and successful first day" and helps the system allocate "instructional materials, supplies, classroom space and other resources." Notice who the convenience is for. The system needs headcounts to get its funding. The families get a bureaucratic hoop to jump through.
AL.com played it straight — registration logistics, phone numbers, required documents. What went unasked: why thousands of families in one city are so disengaged from the public school system that they haven't bothered to sign up. When a product doesn't sell, you question the product. When a school can't get families to register, the establishment questions the families.
Two states, same story. Tens of thousands of kids falling through the cracks, and the only answer the gatekeepers will entertain is more money for the gatekeepers. The question neither outlet will ask is the one that matters: what happens when parents control the money instead of the system?
