In 2018, the court found in Yazzie/Martinez v. State of New Mexico that the state was not fulfilling its constitutional duty of providing a sufficient education that prepares students for college or career readiness. The Bilingual Multicultural Education Act and the Indian Education Act also require culturally relevant learning environments. The Yazzie case identified four affected student groups: English Language leaners, students with disabilities, plus low-income and Native American students.
The most recent action plan addresses four critical needs for equitable access: to high-quality instruction, to well-prepared, culturally, and linguistically responsive educators, to academic, social, well-being, and behavioral services, and effective funding and accountability to drive systemic improvement.
Each of these four needs have their own 3-year action plan for implementation.
After listening sessions across the state hosted by the Public Education Department, Secretary Mariana Padilla said this plan is detailed and extensive and reflects what the department heard from the community.
“[The plan] recognizes Tribal sovereignty and fully implements the Indian Education Act, it enhances programs, resources, and funding to our English learners, it ensures schools have training, resources, and supports for students with disabilities, and provides economically disadvantaged students with the resources to succeed,” said Padilla.
But state representative Derrick Lente (D), at a recent Legislative Finance Committee meeting, said this plan falls woefully short of expectations and shared that the All Pueblo Council of Governors have demanded a re-write of the plan due to inadequacy.
“And after over a billion dollars pumped into half measures and false solutions. Why wouldn’t we want to bring everybody together? Let’s create solutions and not perpetuate the problems,” said Lente.
New Mexico’s problems with education have been longstanding. However, Sunny Liu, Analyst with the Legislative Finance Committee, said “our outputs are improving, but not probably to the level that was envisioned by the court to date.”
He pointed to data that shows the state has not yet returned to its pre-pandemic numbers when it comes to national standards on math and reading scores. However, state assessments show growth for reading while math still isn’t recovering. Liu also pointed out that high school graduation rates are growing slowly, but college remediation is climbing. And while absenteeism has improved since the pandemic, schools are not back to pre-pandemic numbers.
Lente added that he’s worried that the action plan may not be adequate, leading lawmakers to make incorrect budget decisions.
“Without an adequate plan, it does a huge disservice to this Legislature and those into the future to prudently perform budget planning,” said Lente. “We are responsible to plan a budget for education, and without an appropriate plan, are we going to continue to throw money trying to find out solutions on something that we don't really know. It doesn't make much sense”.
Lente is calling for more collaboration and recommends PED work with the subject matter experts identified by the plaintiff’s team. He continued that the action plan as it stands now feels haphazard.
“This magnitude and a call to action of a plan to improve education in New Mexico deserves to assemble an all star team. Period. Which at this point, we have started, but we can't say that after four months, we've accomplished that in many cases, some weren't even invited to the game,” said Lente.
PED early in September published their Fiscal Year ‘27 Public School Support Request. This plan includes multi-year funding for out-of-school time, high-impact tutoring for student intervention, behavioral health, and targeted inventions for all Yazzie/Martinez students.
“We are counting on that request in order to really implement year two of the plan,” said Padilla.
Padilla said the plan is now in the plaintiffs’ hands. They have until December 1st to submit their feedback. After that, PED and its partners will have 15 days to file their response with the court.
Support for this coverage comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
