Newly appointed PED secretary vows to stay on job through end of governor's term

SANTA FE — One week after being appointed to oversee New Mexico’s public school system, Mariana Padilla pledged to stay on the job through the end of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s second term.

“Absolutely I will be here until the end,” Padilla said during a Tuesday news conference at the Governor’s Office. “I made that commitment to the governor, and to our state and to myself.”

Padilla, who is the governor’s fifth public education secretary since 2019, has served for the last five-plus years as director of the Children’s Cabinet in the Lujan Grisham administration.

The governor, who participated in the Tuesday news conference remotely after testing positive for COVID-19, lauded Padilla’s leadership style and past work on state literacy and early childhood programs.

“She’s a New Mexican, she’s an educator and she’s been in our classrooms,” Lujan Grisham said of Padilla.

The governor also touted recent U.S. Census Bureau data that showed New Mexico’s child poverty rate has improved to just 8.9% — or 22nd highest in the nation — when anti-poverty measures including a child tax credit and a cash assistance program are considered.

The state still ranks last in the nation under the official measure for child poverty with a rate of 27.4%.

Padilla was appointed by the governor last week to replace Arsenio Romero, who stepped down after Lujan Grisham asked him to either resign or withdraw his application for the job as president of New Mexico State University. Romero is one of five finalists who recently interviewed for the NMSU position.

Despite increased state spending on public schools and teacher salaries in recent years, New Mexico has struggled to comply with the landmark 2018 Yazzie-Martinez court ruling that found the state was failing to provide an adequate education to all students. Plaintiff attorneys in the case recently filed a motion asking a judge to order the state to come up with a plan to comply with the ruling.

Lujan Grisham said Tuesday the COVID-19 pandemic delayed some of her administration’s attempts to implement anti-poverty programs like expanded pre-kindergarten.

“I don’t think we’re where we ought to be for Yazzie-Martinez, but I have complete confidence the team before you, and in particular Mariana Padilla, has clarity about what the department needs to do” to boost student proficiency levels, the governor said, referring to the court ruling.

As for Padilla, she said the state’s rate of chronic absenteeism improved by 7% over the last year but acknowledged room for improvement.

“These gains are notable, but we are clear this is not enough,” Padilla said. “Our students deserve better and they’re counting on us to put our full efforts toward creating the best education system we can.”

“We know the things that work, but we have to have the courage to do it,” she added.

She also suggested she would continue PED’s push to require New Mexico public schools to spend at least 180 days with students per school year.

The 180-day requirement was scheduled to take effect in July after approval of a new PED rule, but it’s now on hold after coalition of school districts and superintendents filed a lawsuit challenging it.

Padilla, who has three children attending Santa Fe public schools, said she brings a unique perspective to the job as a parent of school-aged children.

“It’s really important we listen to families and bring them to the table,” she said.

Padilla previously worked as an elementary school teacher in Albuquerque, and she also filled in as a substitute teacher at a Santa Fe school in January 2022 along with other members of the governor’s administration.