Despite $2.6B investment, NM schools ‘largely failed’ to increase instructional time, report says — Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
New Mexico has spent $2.6 billion on extended learning time in schools since a judge presiding over the landmark Yazzie/Martinez lawsuit in 2018 found the state did not give at-risk students equitable opportunities. Despite that massive investment, schools across the state have “largely failed to increase instructional time,” according to a state report released Wednesday.
The new Legislative Finance Committee report, presented before a panel of state lawmakers in Ruidoso, followed up on a similar 2018 LFC report that found additional learning time could help low-income students close the “achievement gap.” While schools across the state have increased the number or the length of school days in the years since then, LFC analysts write in their new report that chronic absenteeism and teacher absences are the most common sources of “time loss” and threaten to undermine the state’s progress.
“We made an investment in time that hasn’t actually resulted in more time,” Public Education Department Secretary Mariana Padilla said at Wednesday’s hearing.
New Mexico students are required to attend a minimum of 1,140 instructional hours annually — the average absentee student missed about 215 such hours in the 2024-2025 school year, nearly one-fifth of their required learning time, according to the new LFC report. While the chronic absenteeism rate has declined from its recent peak during the COVID-19 pandemic, it still remains above pre-pandemic levels, the report says.
“We really need to make sure that our investments and our strategies in the state for instruction are really paying off for our students,” Padilla said. “The report is very clear that we must utilize instructional time more effectively. We need to limit the amount of class interruptions and we need to reduce the amount of absences for our students and our educators.”
That investment has led to some tangible progress. For example, at-risk students, a group comprised of students from low-income families, English language learners, Native Americans and students with disabilities, now have a faster growth rate in reading and math compared to their peers, though the report acknowledges that most at-risk students are not learning fast enough to “close the achievement gap.”
Students who aren’t considered at-risk also face significant challenges. In fact, most New Mexico students are not learning at a fast enough rate to achieve both reading and math proficiency by the time they complete their K-12 education, according to the report.
The report recommends a number of changes, including implementing more streamlined scheduling across the board, clarifying in state statute what counts as an “instructional day” and specifying the educational purposes of after-school programming in state statute to distinguish it from childcare.
At Wednesday’s meeting, a number of state lawmakers expressed concern over the LFC’s findings. Sen. George Muñoz (D-Gallup), who serves as vice chair of the interim Legislative Finance Committee, said he was disappointed that billions of dollars “haven’t moved the needle one bit.”
“I don’t know what’s going to change education. It ain’t money,” he said.
Rep. Rebecca Dow (R-Truth or Consequences) said she has seen improvements in test scores in her local, rural school district and said she was concerned that Wednesday’s discussion could lead to “one size fits all” policy decisions.
“I don’t know when the time will arrive when we say we’ve adequately funded public education…until we targeted interventions to the kids who need it most,” she said. “The growth of funding into PED and higher education and universal childcare and pre-K and home visiting — all of these things being universal instead of targeted, we’re never going to fully fund anything.”
Highlands regents accuse former president of misconduct, financial mismanagement
—Margaret O’Hara, Santa Fe New Mexican
There’s more information out regarding the recent firing of New Mexico Highlands University president Neil Woolf.
The Santa Fe New Mexican obtained a document relevant to the story on Tuesday through a public-records request.
The New Mexican reports that on May 27, the New Mexico Highlands University Board of Regents sent a letter to the New Mexico Office of the State Auditor. The letter accused the former president of improper hiring and procurement practices, financial mismanagement and retaliation against university employees.
The New Mexican contacted Woolf regarding the content of the letter and reports that Woolf disputed the claims.
Woolf's firing was among a wave of dismissals earlier this year. Highlands also terminated the university provost, several vice presidents and the men’s basketball coach.
The moves led to a special audit from the state auditor and a mandatory corrective action plan from the New Mexico Higher Education Department.
The board of regents later publicly said they fired Woolf without cause and would comply with the terms of his contract, including "separation pay."
Edgewood adopts ordinance, town to continue receiving fire, EMS services from Santa Fe County
—Gregory R.C. Hasman, Albuquerque Journal
More than 6,100 Edgewood residents won’t have to worry about whether they will receive help if a fire or medical emergency occurs.
The Town Commission voted 5-0 during a special meeting Tuesday evening to adopt an ordinance pledging gross receipts tax revenue to pay for emergency services. The tax dollars will cover the town’s portion of the joint powers agreement with the Santa Fe County Fire Department.
Dozens of meeting attendees applauded the decision.
“That’s the best news I’ve heard today,” Edgewood Mayor Mike Rariden said as he heard the reaction. “In fact, in quite some time.”
The ordinance will be published in a newspaper. After five days, it will be finalized, he said.
“Our town manager is committed tomorrow to get this thing submitted as soon as possible to start that clock for the five-day countdown,” Rariden said.
Before the vote, several residents requested that the commissioners adopt the ordinance.
Among the speakers was Jean DeMarte, who brought a Bible to the podium.
“You guys have made it very clear to all of us that your religion is very important to you,” she said. “And, in some ways, it affects your vote. OK, so right here is a Bible and I'm going to ask that each one of you swear on this Bible that you will not do anything further to jeopardize this JPA. Do I have any takers, gentlemen?”
DeMarte brought the Bible to the commissioners, who then placed their hands on it and said, “I swear.”
Resident Adrian Chavez Sr. said voting for the ordinance was not about politics.
“It’s about protecting the fire and EMS services for our community,” he said.
In early April, the town and Santa Fe County Fire Department announced they were terminating the prior joint powers agreement, stemming from a legal dispute over payments.
That agreement was set to expire June 30. A few weeks later, however, they reached an agreement in principle to preserve the original payment structure that caused commissioners to rethink their 20-year partnership.
As part of the new joint powers agreement, Edgewood will make monthly $10,000 payments for technical support, donations of surplus fire materials and machinery and capital for continued operations for 18½ years, totaling $2.27 million.
The attorneys for the county and town were collaborating on the ordinance when a commissioner brought forward a different version, Santa Fe County spokesperson Stephanie Stancil said.
The county attorney sent the town a letter requesting to communicate with them about the undisclosed changes, “which they’ve done and we’re all very pleased to have worked through that issue effectively,” she said.
“The big thing is to make sure there is no disruption in fire and EMS services,” Edgewood Commissioner Ken Brennan said in a phone interview. “That's the most important thing.”
Santa Fe County Commissioner Camilla Bustamante said in an email she was “happy to hear that we are moving forward in a manner that assures EMS services for the community.”
Attempts to reach the firefighters union, Local IAFF 4366, for comment were unsuccessful.
Following the vote, commissioners adopted a resolution to extend a fireworks ban, which was put into effect in May. That came after the State Forestry Division issued a ban in April — which included fireworks — on non-municipal, non-federal and non-tribal lands.
“If we have a fantastic monsoon season and God gives us lots of rain then we can go ahead and ease up on it,” Brennan said.
Feds seek to thwart New Mexico suit against Kalshi
—Olivier Uyttebrouck, Albuquerque Journal
The federal government has thrown its weight behind the New York-based prediction market company Kalshi Inc., which faces a New Mexico lawsuit alleging its sports-betting app violates state gambling laws.
New Mexico is the latest state targeted by the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission over state efforts to rein in the activities of sports-betting platforms like Kalshi.
The United States and the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed the suit last week in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque against New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, as well as other state officials and agencies.
The suit is a response to a lawsuit Torrez filed on June 4 in state district court, alleging Kalshi’s sports-betting app functions as a sportsbook in violation of state gambling laws and allows people under age 21 to gamble on sporting events.
“The only lawful gaming in New Mexico operates either under tribal-state gaming compacts, or under strict state regulations to ensure honest gaming free from corruption,” Torrez said at the time. “Kalshi has ignored that framework entirely while offering online sports betting within the state.”
Raúl Torrez The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is asking a judge to issue an injunction that would block New Mexico’s effort to bring Kalshi under the purview of the state’s Gaming Control Act.
The suit argues that New Mexico law is subordinate to federal law, which gives the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission “exclusive jurisdiction” to regulate what it describes as “event contracts,” “swaps” or derivatives.
“The event contracts targeted by New Mexico are ‘swaps’ under the federal CEA (Commodities Exchange Act),” the suit contends. “New Mexico is not the first State that has attempted to invade the Commission’s exclusive jurisdiction over swaps.”
The federal agency has filed similar lawsuits against seven other states that have attempted to regulate “sports-related events contracts,” the agency said on its website.
“The United States and the CFTC bring this action to halt (New Mexico’s) efforts to prohibit the operation of derivatives markets governed by federal law,” the suit said.
Torrez’s office did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment about the new lawsuit.
The state action followed a federal suit filed in May by three New Mexico pueblos and the Mescalero Apache Tribe, alleging Kalshi offers sports betting on tribal lands in violation of federal gambling laws and state-tribal compacts.
The two New Mexico lawsuits add to a growing list of legal actions nationwide that pit states and tribes against sports-wagering platforms for control of gambling within their jurisdictions.
New Mexico AG seeks nearly $1 billion payment from Meta in second phase of trial
—Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez has asked a Santa Fe judge to order Meta, the social media giant that operates Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, to pay $953 million to remedy harm to the state’s youth, recent court filings show.
In a nearly 300-page document filed late Friday evening, attorneys with the New Mexico Department of Justice argue that tens of thousands of New Mexico children and teenagers suffer from depression, eating disorders and suicide risk factors. Meta’s design features, including infinite scrolling and recommendation algorithms, have “substantially contributed to the increase and severity of these problems,” NMDOJ lawyers wrote in the filing.
The filing asked First Judicial District Judge Bryan Biedscheid to require Meta to pay $953 million into a fund meant to boost public education and behavioral health work aimed at kids and teenagers as Meta’s “equitable share of the cost of abating” the harms done to New Mexico’s youth.
When the state rested its case against Meta last month, its expert witnesses testified that fully addressing these issues statewide could take 15 years and cost about $3.7 billion. Any money left unspent after the 15-year mark would be returned to Meta, the filing says.
The recent filings represent the written closing statements from both sides in the bench trial for New Mexico’s case against Meta. In the first phase of the case, a Santa Fe jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million in damages to the state based on 75,000 violations of the state’s Unfair Practices Act, which Torrez has since invoked in a different lawsuit against retailers who allegedly sell vapes to underage customers.
In a filing of its own Friday night, Meta’s attorneys argued that Torrez is seeking an “extraordinary expansion of the law of public nuisance.”
Millions of teenagers “around the world enjoy” Meta’s apps “with positive benefits and, for the vast majority of people, no ill effects,” company lawyers wrote.
They also argued that Torrez is inappropriately alleging a public nuisance. If a user was a victim of bullying or sexual extortion or if someone suffered depression after seeing other people on their social media feeds having fun, those should be considered individual harms and not a broader danger to rights widely held by the public, they wrote in their Friday filing.
The state’s request for Meta to pay into an abatement fund is analogous to forcing a factory that polluted a lake to pay for every cancer patient’s treatment for the next 15 years, they wrote, adding that the proper solution in that scenario would be to order an end to the pollution.
In an email to Source NM, a Meta spokesperson wrote that the state’s demands would “risk leaving teens less safe, infringe on parental rights and stifle free expression.”
“Even the judge has noted those mandates could be an ‘overreach,’” the spokesperson wrote, in reference to Biedscheid’s previous comments in May that he held “some concerns” about the NMDOJ’s demands. “The state’s case ignores the hundreds of apps teens use daily and fails to provide scientific or legal justification for their demands of Meta. We remain committed to providing safe, age-appropriate experiences and have already launched many of the protections the state seeks, including 13 safety measures this past year.”
In court last month, Meta’s attorneys argued that the company had already implemented many of the safety measures Torrez is seeking, including blocking adults from messaging children with whom they aren’t connected and limiting adults from sending “unreasonable” amounts of friend requests or messages to underage users.