Democratic Party of Dona Ana holds gubernatorial debate

The Democratic Party of Dona Ana held a gubernatorial debate Tuesday evening.
All three candidates were present and they spoke on issues the state is currently facing.
ABC-7 spoke to some attendees that said they felt they were well-informed on where the candidates stood when it came to taxes, the environment and health care.

But one topic that consistently came up was education. ABC-7 asked each candidate the same question: If elected what would you focus on when it comes to education in New Mexico?

“Education is key. We are ranked 50th in education. Top down is not working, in fact we are giving too much power to Santa Fe. We have found $228 million , 8 percent of the budget that goes outside our state or goes on to other programs. We are going to move that back into our community. It’s time we start empowering our communities, our teachers, our principles, and our superintendents and we start empowering our communities from the bottom up, top down is not working,” candidate Jeff Apodaca said.

“Making teachers proud to be teaching again and respecting them in our society. This administrations made the teachers the cause and source of all the problems wrongfully and so we’ve discouraged teachers, discouraged parents and discouraged students. We have to rebuild a positive relationship between parents teachers and students,” state Sen. Joseph Cervantes said.
“If education is really your priority then demonstrate it by having good leadership in the public education department. Make sure that you value and respect your educators, engage your stakeholders which is both the students and their parents in that entire community. We’ve been campaigning statewide about community schools, statewide practice about making sure we bring steam,” Rep. Michelle Lynn Lujan Grisham.

Debates will continue for the two candidates vying to become New Mexico’s state representative Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Rio Grande Theater.