Education Equity

Plaintiffs in the long-running Yazzie/Martinez case told a state judge the Public Education Department should throw out its court-ordered plan for remedying inequities in how the majority of public school students in New Mexico are educated.

The 68 Navajo students at Lybrook bring their district hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funding each year, — $381,000 in fiscal year 2025 — money meant to help Indigenous students. Families and school staff believe the money received for Lybrook students is instead going to other schools in the district, whose student populations are almost entirely non-Native.

New Mexico has long struggled with education outcomes. The Yazzie/Martinez education equity case, settled in 2018, was meant to close gaps for the state’s most at-risk students. But a court recently found the Public Education Department still wasn’t meeting the requirements, prompting the agency to file a new action plan.

Over the last seven years $1.6 billion dollars have been spent on New Mexico students’, especially those named in the landmark Yazzie/Martinez lawsuit, but inequities have persisted. Advocates are outraged as years of promises have been broken and many kids in the state’s public education system have been left behind. On the next Let’s Talk New Mexico we’ll dig into why the state has yet to carry out the plans.

The plaintiffs in a landmark equity education lawsuit are headed back to court Tuesday because they say the State of New Mexico has not complied with court orders.

In an age when misinformation abounds, and some try to change history to fit their political agendas, one national non-profit is seeking to create informed citizens who engage thoughtfully with civics and their place in history. KUNM’s Daniel Montano spoke with some of the students involved in National History Day, or NHD.

In 2019 a court found the state of New Mexico violated the constitutional rights of certain students through inadequate education. But New Mexico is still struggling to meet the remedies laid out by that court in the Yazzie/Martinez lawsuit. A policy analyst told lawmakers Tuesday this is true despite increases in education funding.

This upcoming legislative session advocates will focus on how to move New Mexico out of its last place ranking in education, especially as school districts across the state continue to see low test scores. Think New Mexico shares its legislative priorities, but also what New Mexicans want to see as a result of recent polling.

Members of the Legislative Education Study Committee told lawmakers this week they should take a closer look at suspension and expulsion rates for special education students, especially in light of huge increases in behavioral health issues.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez is opening an investigation into disproportionately harsh punishment of Native American children by Gallup McKinley County Schools.