A new opportunity for all kids

The Rio Grande Foundation is pleased to announce that it has created a new education reform coalition under the name of Opportunity for All Kids New Mexico (OAKNM).

The mission of this new organization is to bring New Mexico parents and students together to improve New Mexico’s schools. While this can be achieved to some extent through increased accountability, it is our strong belief that choice and allowing families, not bureaucracies, to direct educational resources, is the path to success.

To head up this effort the Foundation has hired Edwin Aybar to be their Director of Education Coalitions under OAKNM. Edwin has worked with the Libre Initiative as a grassroots organizer for educational change. Previously, he taught music and music history in several universities and was the owner of a music and dance studio.

In addition to our online presence which includes our website and social media, we are excited to announce bi-monthly Educational Freedom meetings being organized by OAKNM. Every first and third Monday of each month anybody interested in improving the educational system of New Mexico is invited to join us from 5:30-7:00pm. We are looking to educate ourselves, discuss issues and possible solutions, and prepare ourselves to take political action when an opportunity might arise. It is going to take time to build a powerful constituency for education reform.

While our organization will have a natural “conservative” leaning, we want to stress that the meetings will be politically non-partisan. We want to be a group that is focused on solutions, rather than character attacks, and we believe that respectful dialogue is the only path forward in these politically divided times.

We can work together to create a new opportunity for all kids.