SANTA FE – Plaintiffs in a landmark education lawsuit against the state of New Mexico urged legislators to compel the governor to develop and implement a plan for overhauling the state’s education system.
“The state itself is the defendant in this case, not a particular agency, and it is essential that somebody in state government take the reigns and move this forward,” said Daniel Yohalem, an attorney for the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty.
Yohalem said that after a court ruling in favor of the lawsuit, he met with the Public Education Department twice last year in what he thought was a step to forming such a joint plan. He said Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham abruptly cut off the meetings, citing an unrelated death of an education department employee and the firing of the education secretary.
Shortly after, the governor moved to dismiss the lawsuit, which was initially filed against her Republican predecessor in 2014. Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, argues that her administration is making progress even though it has not yet resolved the deficiencies.
The case is centered on ensuring that at-risk students are being served. Around 80% of the state’s 330,000 students are considered at-risk under the lawsuit, which covers low-income, English-language-learning and Native American students.
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Education Secretary Ryan Stewart gave examples Friday to legislators of programs he was implementing to address one aspect of the lawsuit: a lack of culturally and linguistically specific education for Indigenous children and English language learners.
Stewart told legislators that a significant portion of a recent $9 million pot of money sent to the education department for language curricular development is earmarked for Native American languages, of which there are over a dozen in the state, “So that not every Indigenous language teacher feels like they have to go it alone on building their Indigenous language curriculum,” he said.
Ryan left the meeting after his presentation, and education department staff were not available to respond to legislators’ questions following other testimony.
The lawsuit is named Martinez and Yazzie after two plaintiff mothers who are among those who say centuries of abuse and shortcomings by state government make them wary of promises by the state. In June, a new district judge ruled the case could not be dismissed because the state hadn’t met its responsibilities.
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Attorneys for the plaintiffs outlined deficiencies in the educational system during the Legislative Finance Committee meeting. They said school shutdowns because of the pandemic have hit Indigenous students harder because they disproportionately lack internet access.
“(Other) kids can get onto the internet at any time from the comfort of their homes. Students living in rural and tribal areas who lack access to technology, internet and broadband face greater inequities and disparities in educational attainment,” New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty lawyer Melissa Candelaria said.
Rep. Rod Montoya, R-Farmington, criticized the state for its reliance on remote learning and the Yazzie lawyers for not pressing the state to open up in-person learning in schools.
“Under the current program that we have in place dealing with COVID, it’s going to be the minority and rural students that are hit the hardest during this time,” Montoya said, adding that he believes lessons are falling short and forcing working parents to choose between their jobs and childcare.
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While many districts have been able to distribute a tablet or laptop to every student, legislators reported that many constituents have not received one. Around one-fifth of students still lack internet access at home, with more lacking the kind of high-speed internet that would allow video streaming in homes with more than one child.
Stewart said Thursday at a news conference that the state is on track to allow some elementary students to attend in-person two days per week starting after Labor Day. He added that around one-third of the state’s 89 districts had chosen to stick with online learning through the end of the year.
Cedar Attanasio is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. Follow Attanasio on Twitter.
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