New Mexico must address ‘continuing violation’ of students’ rights in failing to educate, judge rules 

A New Mexico judge has ordered the state to create a remedial plan after its “continuing violation of at-risk students’ constitutional rights” – rights to receive an adequate public education, the Associated Press reported.

“A court-ordered plan would provide guidance to the Legislature and the executive branches of government,” state district court Judge Matthew Wilson said in an April 29 ruling, “particularly when making difficult budgetary decisions that need to survive political and economic shifts.”

Even after a record $4.4 billion in funding for the 2025 fiscal year, public schools still haven’t addressed systemic issues stifling academic progress statewide, according to the report.

Students in at-risk categories include Native Americans, those with disabilities, low-income families, and those learning English as a second language.

“Lawmakers have been pouring public resources into efforts to improve attendance, boost access to broadband internet, shore up school staffing and more amid a windfall in state government income from oil and natural gas production,” writes Morgan Lee for the Associated Press.

However, this “multibillion-dollar spending spree” has failed to produce measurable improvements for student outcomes so far: “In court filings, the administration of Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has acknowledged that there is room for improvement.”

Yazzie-Martinez case ‘costing students the opportunity to succeed’

New Mexico has struggled for many years with low graduation rates and academic scores.

Despite chronic absenteeism, schools continue generating “outsized costs” through programs such as universal school meals “for little or no benefit to children consuming the meals,” according to the Rio Grande Foundation.

A lawsuit known as the Yazzie-Martinez case accused the state in 2017 of failing to meet its constitutionally mandated educational obligations, according to news reports at the time.

“These failings are costing students the opportunity to succeed,” said Marisa Bono, lead attorney for the plaintiffs. “The state is pumping hundreds of thousands of students into the state economy who are wholly unprepared for college or career.”

The courts eventually ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, although state attorneys argued at the time against raising school funding.

“The evidence will show that additional spending will have virtually no effect on student test scores,” attorney Jeff Wechsler said, noting high levels of student poverty would remain unaddressed. “The defendants cannot show that spending more will impact them in any meaningful way.”

The state has since reversed its funding rhetoric, with Attorney General Raúl Torrez publicly supporting attempts “to make the state comply with its obligations to students,” according to Lee.

“The remedial plan could take five years to carry out,” she writes, “and possibly resolve litigation.”