Secretary of Education Dr. Kurt Steinhaus
By BONNIE J. GORDON
Los Alamos Daily Post
bjgordon@ladailypost.com
During the second portion of the Legislative Preview hosted by the Los Alamos chapters of American Association of University Women (AAUW) and League of Women Voters conducted Thursday via Zoom, New Mexico Secretary of Education Dr. Kurt Steinhaus spoke on the plans to address the District Court’s ruling in the landmark Yazzie/Martinez lawsuit.
The lawsuit challenged the state’s failure to provides students—especially low-income, Native American, English language learner (ELL), and those with disabilities—the programs and services necessary for them to learn and thrive, and challenged the state’s failure to sufficiently fund these programs and services.
Judge Sarah Singleton ruled July 20, 2018, that all New Mexico students have a right to be college and career ready and that the state is failing to meet this obligation. Lack of funds is not an excuse for denying New Mexico’s students a sufficient education. The state must come up with the necessary funding to meet New Mexico students’ right to a sufficient education, she ruled.
“We need to make better use of the funds we have,” Steinhaus said.
Steinhaus outlined four areas of focus to address Yazzie/Martinez:
- Close the opportunity gaps that impede equitable student success;
- Increase student achievement;
- Graduate more students from high school, prepared for college, career and civic life; and
- Eliminate pervasive disparities among student subgroups.
Increasing funding will be necessary, as well as the evaluation of programs and initiatives, he said. Increased oversight of school districts, implementing research-based initiatives and evaluating them would help with reaching the state’s goals.
Steinhaus then outlined some of the budget requests being put forward to address Yazzie/Martinez. The Public Education Department (PED) Identity, Equity, and Transformation team will be sharing updates on how the PED is addressing the needs outlined in the lawsuit.
Steinhaus stressed that PED finds the goals outlined in Yazzie to be worthwhile and important and will strive to achieve them.
He also discussed lessons learned from the pandemic including the need for students to be with their friends and teachers, adding that the pandemic has focused more attention on the importance of bringing Internet service to every student’s home.
Steinhaus highlighted the need to attract and retain teachers in New Mexico.
“Tomorrow, 1,000 classrooms will be without a licensed teacher,” he said. “We must address this crises.”
To that end, PED is recommending raising teacher minimum salaries to:
- $50,000 for level 1 teachers;
- $60,000 for level 2 teachers; and
- $70,000 for level 3 teachers.
Funds for teacher development and funds for providing regionally competitive salary and benefits for all school personnel are being requested and funds to create salary parity for teachers of Native languages are being requested as well.
“What’s in Yazzie/Martinez is what’s best for New Mexico,” Steinhaus concluded.
