New Mexico recruited its state militia to keep schools open.
Today: Staff sergeants lead classrooms, the Biden administration moves to end a policy that targeted Chinese researchers and after a pandemic hiatus, Modern Love is back with its college essay contest. National Guard troops are staffing classrooms in New Mexico to help with crippling staff shortages related to the pandemic. While there, they are employing their informal motto, “Semper Gumby” — Always Flexible. In one classroom in Estancia, about an hour outside of Albuquerque, my colleague Erica L. Green watched a member of the Guard use her uniform in a vocabulary lesson. The students were working on their pronunciation of a “bossy R,” as in -er, -ir-, -ur. “My substitute is wearing gear,” one student responded. “Yes,” the teacher, Lt. Col. Susana Corona, replied, beaming. “The superintendent allows me to wear my uniform. I’m wearing a pair of boots.” Other states have also turned to uniformed personnel to help schools cope. In Massachusetts, National Guard members have driven school buses. In Oklahoma, police officers served as substitutes. Some critics have worried that putting more uniformed officers in schools could create anxiety in student populations that have historically had hostile experiences with law enforcement. But in New Mexico, schools have largely embraced state militia members as a complicated but critical step toward recovery. “You always have to be ready when there’s a need, when there’s a call to service,” said Colonel Corona, who watched her own fourth grader try to learn remotely last year. Some teachers have expressed gratitude for what one called “extra bodies.” Others see the deployment as a way to avoid tackling longstanding problems undergirding the staff shortages, although state lawmakers just passed legislation that will raise teachers’ base salary by an average of 20 percent, starting this summer.
