Howie Morales, a Democrat from Silver City, NM, was elected Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico in November, 2018, together with Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. Previously, Howie served in the New Mexico Senate for 11 years on the influential Legislative Finance Committee. He understands how we fund public schools. The first in his family to attend college, he put himself through Western New Mexico University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree, and a Master of Arts degree in Bilingual Special Education. He later earned a PhD in Education Curriculum and Instruction at New Mexico State University. Howie was a classroom teacher of students in high school special education for 10 years. He also volunteered as a \”Big\” mentor for Big Brothers Big Sisters. He has been an outspoken leader for students, educators, and classrooms. He fought hard against funding cuts to public school classrooms, opposed the over-use of standardized tests, like the PARCC test, led the fight against the flawed teacher evaluation system, and against the broken A to F school grading system; and pushed to increase the tax on cigarettes, and vaping to generate $89 million more for public schools and make kids healthier. In January, Governor Lujan Grisham asked Howie to be the interim Secretary of the Public Education Department until a permanent Secretary could be named. During that period, the Governor issued two executive orders eliminating future use of the PARCC standardized test in public schools, and boosted school funding by $500 million. In April, Howie was invited by AFT President Randi Weingarten to be part of a National Press Club panel discussion in Washington, DC with education leaders from across the United States about the crisis hitting the teacher profession, its negative effects on classrooms, and how to fix it.