Landmark education case reassigned to new judge
District Judge Matthew Wilson to take over case
SANTA FE — A high-profile court case over New Mexico public education funding levels has been reassigned to a new state judge after the death last week of retired Judge Sarah Singleton.
The reassignment means District Judge Matthew Wilson will take over a still-active case that has already prompted state lawmakers to approve a massive funding increase for public schools in this year’s $7 billion budget.
Singleton had presided over the case for several years — even after her formal retirement — and issued a landmark ruling last summer that found the state was not meeting its constitutional obligation to provide an adequate education to all New Mexico students, particularly Native Americans, English-language learners and those with disabilities.
But she recused herself from the case July 3, just a day before she died of metastatic endometrial cancer. That recusal paved the way for the case to be reassigned by the First Judicial District’s chief judge, according to court filings.
What came to be known as the Yazzie-Martinez lawsuit was filed by the New Mexico Center on Law and
Poverty and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in 2014, arguing the state has been breaking its constitutional obligation to provide a sufficient education to all children.
A bench trial in 2017, which lasted several months, resulted in over 130 depositions taken and in excess of a million pages of documents exchanged. Closing arguments wrapped up in early 2018 and Singleton announced her ruling last July, saying the state did violate the constitutional rights of students, especially at-risk students.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham decided earlier this year not to appeal the ruling, but has said her administration will litigate aggressively in an attempt to avoid long-term court oversight of the state’s public schools.
The most recent filing in the case came June 28, when the plaintiffs filed a notice arguing lawmakers and Public Education Department officials have still not done enough to ensure all students have access to an adequate education.