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Anti-Gay Protest Starts at UNM

ABQjournal: Around Northern New Mexico

Anti-Gay Protest Starts at UNM

An anti-gay church group has apparently rescheduled its planned Santa Fe protest, and they plan to kick off their New Mexico activities at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., recently announced they would picket eight Santa Fe churches that expressed support for a 21-year-old gay man who was severely beaten in February. The group had planned to picket outside the churches on April 17 and outside City Hall on April 18, but the group has postponed its Santa Fe visit by a week.

According to its Web site, the group will be picketing at UNM on Central and Stanford shortly before noon on April 23. The Santa Fe protests are scheduled for the afternoon of April 23 and for April 24.

37th, 49th, whatever

ABQjournal: N.M. Ranks 37th in U.S. in Per-Pupil Spending By Gabriela C. Guzman

New Mexico ranks 37th in the nation for per-pupil education spending, according to a report recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

On average, the state spent $6,870 per student for the 2002-2003 academic school year, which is a 3.8 percent increase over the $6,606 spent during the previous academic year. …

In New Mexico, all revenue sources for public education are distributed equally among the districts. This system has garnered local and national accolades for fairly funding education for all children. …

New Mexico, for example, should be compared to a state like West Virginia: The two states’ populations, the amount of revenue generated from property tax and the number of school-age children mirror each other.

However, West Virginia spent $8,218 per pupil in the 2002-2003 academic school year? $1,300 per pupil more than New Mexico.

New Mexico ranks in the top 10 for federal spending (fourth) and state funding (ninth) on education, according to the census report. But when it comes to local resources, the state plummets to 49th.