Opinion: Alamogordo Institutions Being Used for Partisan Political Gamesmanship to Dismantle Public Schools

This week the Alamogordo Chamber of Commerce used its outreach via an email alert to invite individuals to the Flickinger Center to hear the rantings  of author Corey De’Angelis, who’s mission is to dismantle the public education system. 

Corey De’Angelis outlines the process in his book of which he will be hawking titled, The Parent Revolution: Rescuing Your Kids from the Radicals Ruining Our Schools.

As an African American Woman from Berkeley and a political science and journalism major, I find it very interesting that this nationally known person would pick Alamogordo as a place to hawk his book. 

But after reading his book it all makes perfect sense.

He outlines in chapter 4, his reasons for being in Alamogordo, as it’s the perfect storm to test his theory of transformation in heavily red districts the school system, one district at a time.

He has a gullible cast in Alamogordo, already engaged and needing his energy, to layer in his evangelical approach and to provide them credibility to their charter schools initiative.

In chapter four,  DeAngelis describes the idea behind the “red state strategy” of which Alamogordo is a perfect litmus test in New Mexico, he and other advocates are hoping to implement their plan using small towns, and poor states, with a less educated electorate, in order to facilitate new choice programs using public money.

This is an intentional push to make policy inroads in heavily GOP areas, to elevate school choice to something of a litmus test issue for Republican candidates and policymakers. 

First, the goal is to show frustrated families that school choice is the solution to their problem; then, they establish a model to “turn up the heat on state and local school districts and legislators , especially Republicans.”

As DeAngelis writes in his book, “Not long ago, the idea that we should fund students, not systems, was considered radical and fringe. The way government schools handled COVID made Americans rethink their commitment to a one-size-fits-all system of government schooling. Now nearly a dozen states offer universal education choice, and several more states appear ready to follow them.

There is a clear trajectory in this theology, parents wanted their schools reopened during the pandemic, then became more tuned in to the education happening once they did reopen, or so the theory goes.

From what he calls “ideological and activist educators teaching critical race theory, the adoption of sweeping transgender bathroom policies, age-inappropriate books, and hostile school administrators, many parents did not like what they found.” Once they were stymied and ignored by the upholders of the status quo, they were then driven to look for solutions outside the traditional system and this led to the rise of social engineering like we see attempting to be executed in Alamogordo with the Charter Schools initiative.

And that’s the crust of the local Charter School initiative in Alamogordo. A magnet school within APS with a focus on STEM would be a great opportunity for students. 

But, the group behind the Charter and the author brought in by the Chamber and Flickinger, to provide credibility to their cause, is flawed. The argument on CRT, bathroom policies etc is a smokescreen to rally support and not the real issue on why public schools are failing.

The Charter advocates in Alamogordo are using smoke screens to push their agenda. The public be warned, follow the money.

If the charter moves forward, 5 years from now and $8 Million dollars later, citizens will ask, how’d we get here? Are things better? No! 

Follow the money and look at who is driving the initiative, do they represent the diverse community of Alamogordo? 

Astute planning and clever to bring in this author, just as the application for the Charter has been filed! Taxpayers be warned! Hide your billfold, taxpayers! 

Is this just another of the many charlatans or grifters,  from outside Alamogordo that profit, push an agenda and then leave a mess to be cleaned up by the taxpayers such as the Clements fiasco? The players in that fiasco are the same as the Charter School leaders, Otero County Commissioner Vickie Marquardt, Flickinger Center and Lori Black are also behind this effort, Flickinger Center hosted the Clement’s rallies and Otero County taxpayers footed the bills and legal expenses that soon followed. Both are on the Charter Founding Board. 

Since the arrival of Jarrett Perry at the Chamber of Commerce the organization has taken a hard stance against public education and the evangelism of dismantling public education systems as we know them. The irony, considering he is a former Alamogordo Public Schools Superintendent, former paid public servant, who retired amidst controversy, he left town working another job outside of education, and then came back in partnership with his wife, Michelle Perry via Learn New Mexico to use their influence to partner with others to form a charter school. This effort is being facilitated not using their own money or private resources instead using public money, up to $2.5 million in APS public money per year by year 5.

Each endeavor pushed forth by this group, uses public taxpayers money, to fund their ideology and goals, not just private money!

The political partisanship that has taken over both the Chamber of Commerce and the Flickinger Center is a disservice to this community. 

Each, should to go back to their core mission; business development at the chamber and diverse entertainment at the Flickinger.

The political gamesmanship of each organization is disturbing the credibility of each organization and is a disservice to the community at large. 

The public must wake up and not be distracted by yet another grifter pushing an agenda that may not reflect the long term interests of the majority of citizens of Alamogordo. 

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