Critics say New Mexico's investments in Native students still lagging
Jul. 23—Nearly three years after a judge's ruling in the landmark Yazzie/Martinez education lawsuit, New Mexico lawmakers and the state Public Education Department are still facing concerns about their investments in Native American students.
Regis Pecos, a former governor of Cochiti Pueblo who serves on the Tribal Education Alliance, pointed out Friday to members of the Legislative Finance Committee that in its 2021 session, the Legislature approved only 11 percent of the more than $140 million requested in bills to establish the Tribal Remedy Framework, a plan aimed at increasing tribal community involvement in the education of Native students in public schools.
"It's important to understand and appreciate how terribly disconnected we are from what you think is your investment to address Martinez/Yazzie," said Pecos, who also is a member of the Santa Fe Community College Foundation board and co-director of the Leadership Institute at Santa Fe Indian School.
"There's no evidence that dollars received by school districts reach Native students and meet their needs," Pecos added.
The judge ruled in Yazzie/Martinez the state has failed to provide an adequate education to several groups of public school students, including Native Americans.
Public Education Secretary Ryan Stewart presented a report to lawmakers Friday that also found troubling gaps in districts' spending on initiatives for Native students.
The report offered new data on educational outcomes for Native children. Between 2015 and 2019, it said, reading and math proficiency rates, graduation rates and enrollment in local colleges increased among Native students, but the numbers lagged behind statewide performance rates and outcomes for white and Hispanic students.
Only a fifth of public districts and charter schools serving Native students planned to take part in the state's K-5 Plus summer program for low-income elementary students in the coming year, the report said. Though, it said the majority of districts are planning to participate in some type of state-funded extended learning time program throughout the year to help make up for educational losses during the coronavirus pandemic, when most schools relied on remote learning.
Many Native students living in remote tribal communities lacked the technology and internet connection required to log into their lessons, state and school officials have said.
Stewart's report also said the school districts in New Mexico budgeted just $1.1 million from the second round of federal pandemic relief on initiatives addressing the needs of Native students out of the total $435 million allocated to them.
And, the report said, $2 million of the $9 million in state funding appropriated for "culturally and linguistically responsive" instructional materials focused on Indigenous students went unspent in the last fiscal year. The Public Education Department said the spending failure was due to a lack of proposals.
Earlier this year, the Legislature approved a move to ensure school districts with large swaths of tribal and federal lands, especially those in remote areas, can keep all of their funding from the federal Impact Aid program, meant to make up for property tax losses.
In the past, the state essentially has seized a share of those funds.
The move should be a boon for school districts like Central Consolidated School District in Shiprock, 98 percent of which is Navajo Nation land.
Administrators of Central Consolidated told lawmakers Friday, however, they are facing other setbacks. The district long has relied on local mines and power plants for about 80 percent of its property tax revenue, and many are scheduled for shutdowns.
"The COVID pandemic really exacerbated the historic gaps we already have," said Germaine Chappelle, an attorney for the district. "Obviously, the concern on our part is: We've made a step forward with Impact Aid. The closure of the plants could take us back."