Okay, we're going to hop out of the pool long enough to do some blogging, but with the temps today again headed toward the century mark we'll make it an easy read.

How hot is it? Well, the roadrunners are hanging out on the telephone wires. That's how hot.

What's not so hot is the state's public education system. Perennially cited as underfunded and discriminatory towards low income Hispanic and Native American students, Santa Fe District Court Judge Sarah Singleteon forced the state's hand and came with a ruling in a lawsuit that finds the low funding unconstitutional. That handed the state legislature a potato hotter than a Tucumcari parking lot in a July heat wave.

As State Senator Mimi Stewart points out, rather than settling the matter the judge's ruling (which could be appealed by the Martinez administration) appears to set up a free for all between liberals and conservatives in the next legislative session in January:

Stewart, an Albuquerque Democrat and chairwoman of the Legislative Education Study Committee, said the judge “wasn’t prescriptive” in what has to happen next, but rather left it to lawmakers and the governor to develop a plan.

Let the chaos begin. Here's Patty Lundstrom, chair of the House Appropriations Committee:

Whatever we come up with, I hope we have the steady revenue stream to keep it going so we don’t end up back in court.

And if anyone thinks austerity hawk and Senate Finance Committee Chair John Arthur Smith is about to plow tens of millions more into education without combat, we've got some igloos for sale for you at the Kimo Theatre downtown. Get 'em before they melt.

It's going to have to be Patty who will have to melt John Arthur's cold, cold heart. And it will be the new Governor who is going to have to somehow warm the space between the two.

On the hopeful front, one of the Alligators analyzed:

The condition of our children will now get national attention. This will mix up elections. Change is in the air. 

STOKING THE FIRE

UNM President Stokes

The last thing the new UNM president needed was a bonfire outside her door during a heat wave. But that's what Garnett Stokes got.

It happened when she went along with new Athletic Director Eddie Nuñez and the Governor Martinez controlled UNM Board of Regents and agreed to axe the UNM men's soccer team as well as the ski teams. The budget balancing move caused an uproar and also caused any goodwill for newcomer Stokes to evaporate faster than the summertime virga over Mora County.

Stokes, 61, who took over the UNM presidency in March, had a chance to position herself as an agent of change by, for example, clipping the wings of UNM football. But she quickly fell in line with the donor class in showering money on that sputtering sport and decapitated soccer, a sport of the future, which was amply demonstrated by the pro-soccer crowd that jammed the Regents meeting where the axe fell.

And eliminating the ski teams that excel nationally in a state that's home to the renowned Taos Ski Valley and numerous other ski destinations that attract tourists from around the world? The bubble that Stokes, Nuñez and the Regents are living in must be made of stainless steel.

Well, no one is stoked about Stokes anymore, except maybe former Athletic Department Director Paul Krebs. He is long gone after passing the athletic department mess to her  and in the process avoiding being indicted for financial hanky-panky at the disgraced department.

Oh, well. Don't you know? Soccer is for sissies.

Let's throw the beach ball to the readers:

Joe, it's the student/athletes that get hurt, especially the local athletes that would like to play for their University. Did you know that 3/4 of all student/athletes at UNM are on the honor roll? We are going to give up some of the brightest and most athletically talented students for $500,000 a year? Talk about a brain drain from NM. Where's the vision?

And another:

Joe, The one UNM sport that should have been eliminated is David Harris. As the financial policeman/paymaster for UNM, it should have been his job to not only monitor, but control the expenditures. And his annual salary could certainly help in making up the budget shortfall. Or if he was advised not to control, he certainly could have made the profligate overspending known to his many friends in the executive, legislative and judicial branches. Or maybe he was complicit in this fiasco. I'm just sayin'.

Harris is retiring at the end of the year. The last we heard his salary and deferred compensation is somewhere north of $400,000 a year. His state retirement check in the first year alone will be enough to buy an Olympic-sized swimming pool and a bar in Acapulco stocked with free margaritas for life.

And with that round-up of the bizarre state of affairs in the halls of academia it's definitely time to get back in the pool and dive deep into some icy water. Hey, Gators: Marco Polo!

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2018