Torrez: State to change posture in years-long education reform case

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said Wednesday that for years the state hasn’t stood up for marginalized children in a massive reform lawsuit forcing it to make changes in the education provided to English language learners and Native American students.

But a newly formed Civil Rights Division within his office will review years’ worth of court filings in the lawsuit with an eye for changing the state’s position in the case.

Torrez announced the comprehensive review during his opening remarks at the League of United Latin American Citizens annual conference, which is being held in Albuquerque this week.

He created the division despite Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham pocket vetoing a bill earlier this year that would have created one.

“When we had the veto, I made a promise to this community that ... we’re going to create the Civil Rights Division in the Attorney General’s Office, anyway,” Torrez said.

Lawyers within his office will now examine the extensive filings in the case long referred to as the Yazzie-Martinez lawsuit.

“I have ordered the members of this newly formed Civil Rights Division to reexamine the defensive position that we took on behalf of the state, and instead, to reorient ourselves, to stand up for the plaintiffs, to stand up for the children, and to fight to make sure that the next generation has everything that they’re entitled to,” Torrez said.

New Mexico recently marked its five-year anniversary since the landmark decision in the consolidated lawsuit — in which a judge found that New Mexico was violating the rights of its most “at-risk” students to a sufficient education — was handed down.

Since then, some advocates say that while New Mexico has made progress, it hasn’t made nearly enough. The students identified in the lawsuit tend to lag behind in state and national assessments, and advocates say many still aren’t getting the services they need to catch up.

Last year, the state Public Education Department released a draft action plan responding to the decision, but despite promises to release its final plan in the fall has yet to do so.

Torrez said that lawyers hired by the PED have filed motions taking positions that were defensive or, in some cases, tried to get the case dismissed.

“From my perspective, that’s exactly the wrong position,” Torrez said.

In a written response, state Education Secretary Arsenio Romero said the PED welcomed Torrez’s “care for the education and success of the students in New Mexico,” and said the department will look forward to partnering with him.

“We look forward to making him aware of the work we have already done to improve outcomes for the student groups represented in Martinez-Yazzie and hope that he will come to the table ready to roll up his sleeves and get to work with us,” Romero added.

“We were not aware of the announcement ahead of time, but Governor Lujan Grisham has always supported initiatives that are focused on advancing civil rights for New Mexicans,” said Caroline Sweeney, a spokeswoman for Lujan Grisham.

Torrez, who is also a Democrat, said that he encouraged the governor to change her position. He said he’ll lobby next year for legislation that would formally create such a division with the Attorney General’s Office.

Top education officials have, in some instances, welcomed the decision in the lawsuit.

In September, former Education Secretary Kurt Steinhaus told lawmakers he was excited by what the lawsuit offered the state, “because that’s an opportunity for all of us to begin addressing those disparities.”

Romero last month told the Journal that because the four student groups identified in the lawsuit — those with disabilities, English learners, economically disadvantaged students and Indigenous students — represent most of the state’s pupils, responding to the decision in the lawsuit is a way for New Mexico to help them all.

Torrez has assigned two attorneys to the division and hopes to hire another two or three and a division director by the end of the year.

“We’re moving slowly but surely towards creating this division,” he said. “It’s a little hard when you don’t have the kind of institutional support that we hope to have. But we’re gonna get it done.”

The New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, which represents the Yazzie plaintiffs in the lawsuit, declined to comment on Torrez’s announcement.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which is representing plaintiffs in the case, said they are always open to having discussions that lead to changes.

“From the beginning, our clients’ only goal has been to arrive at a New Mexico public education system that equitably provides to all students the realized opportunity to thrive and succeed to the best of their ability,” said Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel for the organization, in a written statement. “Substantial change is necessary to achieve that goal.”

In addition to the review of Yazzie-Martinez positions, Torrez said the Civil Rights Division will also investigate how state and government agencies treat vulnerable people. He said the division will look at discrepancies in how school districts discipline minority students compared with their Anglo peers; it will investigate conditions at jails and the state’s response to allegations that children are being abused and neglected.

The first priority, Torrez said, is the safety of children.

“We all know that the Children, Youth and Families Department is struggling. They have had some high-profile failures, frankly, in the last several years,” he said. “I’ve had ongoing conversations with the administration about what our expectations are with respect to how many resources are going to be provided and the work that they do.”