The latest chapter in the Yazzie-Martinez case: What did PED learn from statewide tour?

As the deadline approaches for the Public Education Department to turn in a draft of its court-mandated remedial plan to improve education in New Mexico, its secretary, Mariana Padilla, said the department is using input from communities across the state.

“I’m just so pleased about the amount of participation that we received,” Padilla said in an interview with the Journal earlier this month.

In August, PED toured the state, visiting almost a dozen cities, including Albuquerque. The department hosted open-house-style events to seek input from parents, teachers, tribal leaders and students. It also held remote sessions.

“It reinforced that we need to invest in our teachers. It reinforced that we need to invest in the actual facilities of our school, the programs that make kids want to show up to school,” Padilla said. “We have to create an education system that really engages our students.”

In April, Santa Fe District Court Judge Matthew Wilson issued the latest ruling in a legal battle that has spanned over a decade, which seven years prior determined that the state of New Mexico’s education system is violating the constitutional rights of some of its students.

The suit originated in 2014 when Wilhelmina Yazzie, the parent of a student at Gallup-McKinley County Schools, and Louise Martinez, the parent of an Albuquerque Public Schools student, joined other parents to file a lawsuit against the state, tasking it to improve its education system, particularly for Indigenous and minority students. In 2018, the late Judge Sarah Singleton ruled in favor of the plaintiffs.

Padilla said PED had been communicating with the plaintiff’s attorneys and that the plaintiffs attended some of the listening tour meetings.

However, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which represents the Martinez plaintiffs, said that wasn’t accurate.

“Martinez plaintiffs were never reached out to by the Secretary, so we now are waiting on a draft of the remedial plan,” Ernest Herrera, Western Regional Counsel for MALDEF, said in an interview. “As for the listening tours, I’m glad that there was an effort to do that outreach, but I think it was difficult, given the short notice and time of day and location, for some of the plaintiffs and community members to be able to attend.”

The New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, who represents the Yazzie plaintiffs, also said they haven’t been brought along to collaborate on the plan yet.

“We haven’t been directly involved in shaping the state’s plan so far, our team has been gathering input through our own community engagement events and will continue doing so to ensure the state’s plan incorporates the recommendations and perspectives of those most directly impacted,” Melissa Candelaria, education director for the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, said in a statement Friday. “We will be sharing that feedback and continuing the conversation with PED in the coming weeks.”

PED must produce a draft of the remedial plan by Oct. 1, and then file a comprehensive final plan and a status report by Nov. 3. The department has already completed the first step ordered by Wilson, selecting outside consultants to assist in the remedial plan.

The state agency tapped the New Mexico-based Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Foundation and the Phoenix-based nonprofit WestEd, paying each entity roughly $200,000.

“When you have that many community voices, which, all told, I think was around 1,500 individual participants, the variety of input really ranges,” Gwen Perea Warniment, president and CEO of the LANL Foundation, said in an interview Friday.

She said the main themes heard were a need for more multicultural education and “responsive teaching, honoring culture and language,” as well as a need for strong teachers, improved special education services, and “needing mechanisms for ensuring that funding is adequately used.”

Perea Warniment, who served as director of the Legislative Education Study Committee from 2022 to 2024 — the primary policymaking arm for the state’s education laws — said she was encouraged to see PED seek input for the remedial plan.

“I feel like the PED did a great job of leaning in with us, letting us lead facilitation, and also being present, really endeavoring to be there, to listen and do a good job of listening, as opposed to taking a defensive stance,” Perea Warniment said.

But she said the road ahead to reforming education in New Mexico — a state with some of the lowest test scores in the country — is still a long one.

“This is a long game, so I’m not sure what the court will decide and how the action plan plays a role in sort of putting anything to rest,” Perea Warniment said. “But I think transformation of the system to meet the needs of students in New Mexico is a long game, and an action plan is one piece of it.”