State’s ed system leaves students unprepared, SFPS chief testifies
García takes stand on first day of nine-week trial to determine whether state’s per-pupil funding formula is shortchanging children
The superintendent of Santa Fe Public Schools, testifying in a lawsuit challenging the level of state funding for public schools, said Monday the education system is leaving high school students ill-prepared for their futures.
García, the first witness in the case, said it is alarming that public schools are graduating so many students who are not proficient in math and reading. She said last year’s standardized test results showed that less than 10 percent of 11th-graders were proficient in math, while less than 50 percent were proficient in English.
Attorney Daniel Yohalem, who represents the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, then asked García if the state was preparing high school graduates for college and careers.
“Unfortunately, it is not,” she responded.
García testified on the opening day of a planned nine-week trial to determine whether the state, through its per-pupil funding formula for public schools, is providing enough money for students to get an adequate education.
The New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund launched the case against the state and its Public Education Department on behalf of a number of plaintiffs, including parents, students and six school districts, one of which is Santa Fe Public Schools.
The plaintiffs want the court to force the state to provide more resources to give New Mexico’s 339,000 public school students a better chance of success. It is a non-jury trial; state District Judge Sarah Singleton will decide the case.
The lawsuit, if successful, could serve as a landmark case for public education funding in New Mexico.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs used the first day of the trial to focus on the many problems they see in the public
education system, including New Mexico’s high number of impoverished students, overcrowded classrooms and a limited amount of pre-kindergarten and summer school programs that better prepare students.
“A good education can make the difference between being a field worker and an astronaut, a criminal and a judge, a pauper and a president,” Marisa Bono, an attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said in opening statements.
But the state has to do more than just invest more money, Bono told Singleton. It also needs to provide more early childhood education programs, after-school tutoring and other measures to help students who struggle with poverty, special needs and the English language.
Defense attorney Jeffrey Wechsler, who represents the Public Education Department, said in his opening arguments that the plaintiffs have to prove that students’ education was stymied by a lack of funding and also show a “complete failure of the system.”
“New Mexico’s education system is healthy and rigorous,” he said, adding that the state has committed about $2.7 billion, or roughly 44 percent, of its $6.1 billion general fund budget to public education this fiscal year.
David Berliner, a research analyst at the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder, testified for the plaintiffs that poverty leads to other problems, including malnutrition, access to learning at home and the ability to regularly attend school.
“Poverty is a code word for a dozen other things that are impacting the achievement level of our kids,” he said.
He said if states invest money in programs that “bind kids to the culture of school, you’re likely to get a payoff. … You have to spend it on the right things.”
But Berliner also acknowledged under questioning that while money can make a difference in many school districts, that is not always the case.
New Mexico has continually ranked at or near the bottom of national education rankings in the past few years. The state’s most recent PARCC score results show that just under 20 percent of the state’s students are proficient in math and roughly 28 percent are proficient in reading and writing for their grade levels. The state’s high school graduation rate, 71 percent, is well below the national average of nearly 83 percent.
Gov. Susana Martinez has repeatedly said that, under her watch, the state has invested more money in public education than ever before.
But a 2016 report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said that over 30 states, including New Mexico, were spending less money per pupil in 2014 than they had in 2008, the first full year of the recession. New Mexico, the report said, spent 5.9 percent less per pupil in 2014 than in 2008.
Based on 2015-16 data compiled by the National Education Association, a teachers union, New Mexico ranks 29th in the country for per-pupil spending at $10,356.
Lida Alikhani, spokeswoman for the Public Education Department, said in an email Monday that the state has “implemented bold reforms that help struggling students learn.”
“Let’s be clear: These political activists are only suing because they want to preserve the status quo, and we are the only ones standing in their way,” Alikhani said.
New Mexico’s per-pupil funding formula, which accounts for more than 95 percent of school financing, provides money to districts based on student educational needs. For example, a district receives more money for a third-grade special-education student than a third-grader without special needs or challenges.