A New Mexico judge is ordering state officials to draw up a new plan aimed at fixing longstanding problems in the state’s public school system.
In a ruling issued yesterday, State District Judge Matthew Wilson said New Mexico’s executive branch has not yet lived up to its constitutional duty to provide a quality education for all students, including at-risk students.
Pupils in that category include Native American students, English language learners, and children from low-income families.
The judge is now requiring the Public Education Department to develop a detailed roadmap to address those shortfalls, while considering concerns, proposals, and objections raised by the families and school districts that originally brought the lawsuit.
Wilson said the court-ordered plan “would provide guidance to the legislature and the executive branches . . . when making difficult budgetary decisions that need to survive political and economic shifts.”
The Yazzie-Martinez case was first filed more than a decade ago.
It challenged deep-rooted inequities in New Mexico’s public education system, particularly in districts with high populations of Indigenous and Hispanic students.
The court’s latest order follows a 2018 decision that found the state was failing to meet its educational obligations.
Since then, New Mexico has increased school spending significantly—but Judge Wilson said that funding alone hasn’t fixed the deeper issues at play.
The judge rejected a proposal from plaintiffs to put the Legislative Education Study Committee in charge of the planning process.
Instead the ruling dictates that the PED take the lead but that it should work with the LESC to identify “an outside expert and consultant” to assist in developing a “comprehensive remedial plan.”
The Public Education Department says it welcomes the opportunity to lead the planning process and move toward a resolution in the long-running case.
Wilson’s ruling also laid out a timeline for next steps.
The PED is required to submit status reports to the court in July and October, on its way to submitting a final plan to the court on Nov. 3.
Submission of that plan would kickoff a period of up to six weeks during which plaintiffs can raise objections that PED will have to respond to.
New Mexico often ranks near the bottom when it comes to educational outcomes nationwide.
While the governor’s office has pointed to major funding increases and new initiatives aimed at helping at-risk students, critics argue that more structural changes are needed.
It could take up to five years to execute the court-ordered plan and possibly, finally, resolve the Yazzie Martinez case.
