New Mexico’s Public Education Department officials were in the hotseat yesterday as lawmakers criticized their response to the ongoing Yazzie-Martinez lawsuit.
The suit, originally filed in 2014, alleged that New Mexico was failing to meet constitutional requirements to provide sufficient funding for at-risk public school students.
The first district court ruling in favor of plaintiffs in 2019 required the state to comply with several orders to improve the performance of schools in the state. Those included developing a comprehensive remedial plan and increasing the budget for the department.
The state legislature has provided the funding, with the annual PED budget rising from $3.46 billion in fiscal year 2021 to about $4.7 billion for fiscal 2025, nearly half of the state’s $10 billion dollar budget.
In a presentation before the Legislative Finance Committee yesterday, PED officials provided data that underscored improvement in some areas and a lack of improvement in others.
Representative Derrick Lente, of Sandia Pueblo, expressed frustration with what he said was the PED’s lack of compliance with the 2019 court order.
He argued that the department hadn’t yet developed a plan designed to address specific complaints in the lawsuit and that changing leadership at the top of the department were serious problems.
"The lack of a plan, the carousel of different secretaries, has led us to this point," Lente said.
"The discussion should not be about, 'Let's hire the best attorney to fight this case,' but we should be leaning on the PED to establish a plan."
"I have been waiting as a member of this legislature, as a tribal parent, for any type of plan that the PED can muster. Here we are sitting today without any type of plan, not even a draft."
PED secretary Mariana Padilla, who has been head of the department for about six weeks, responded to Lente’s criticism by saying that the department’s overall strategic plan incorporates the Yazzie Martinez objectives.
Lente pushed back on that argument, claiming that the 2019 court order required a separate plan to address Yazzie Martinez complaints and targeted at four categories of students.
Those groups: Native American students, English language learners, students with disabilities, and low-income students, all deemed “at-risk” by the court.
Plaintiffs in the case returned to court last month, filing a motion requesting that the state’s Legislative Education Study Committee develop a remedial plan. A judge has not yet ruled on that motion.
Secretary Padilla is the fifth education department head since Michelle Lujan Grisham became governor in 2019.