Expert: More money, spent well, helps students

Testimony comes in potential landmark case on how New Mexico public education is funded

Increased funding can improve public education if spent effectively, a professor of public policy and economics testified Monday in a trial to determine whether New Mexico is spending enough money on students.

Student outcomes have improved in cities and states where courts have forced more investment in public education, said Jesse Rothstein of the University of California, Berkeley.

Rothstein testified in a case brought on behalf of a group of students, parents and school districts by the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

The lawsuit claims the state, through its per-pupil funding formula for public schools, is not providing enough money for students to get an adequate education as required by the New Mexico Constitution.

The lawsuit, if successful, could serve as a watershed case for how public education is funded in New Mexico. It is a non-jury trial; 1st District Judge Sarah Singleton will decide the case.

Previous witnesses have argued that more money would improve public education in the state, but Rothstein provided a national perspective, citing a

2016 report he co-authored that used test scores to show that increased funding, if spent in the right ways, can pay off in higher student achievement rates.

That report contradicts other studies, including one by Eric Hanushek, an economist at Stanford University’s conservative Hoover Institution. Rothstein said Hanushek’s study is flawed because it works on a “simple correlation” between per pupil spending and student outcomes and just for 17-year-olds. Hanushek is expected to testify for the state.

Both sides agree that a vital component to investing more money is to ensure it is spent on the right resources to help students, a point the plaintiffs’ lawyers have tried to make as their witnesses tear away at some New Mexico reform policies, including the teacher evaluation system, that they say distract from this mission.

Rothstein testified the teacher evaluation system is biased against teachers who work in high-poverty schools because they cannot control many outside factors that may influence student learning, including socioeconomic status, whether they learn to read at home or whether they eat regularly.

Citing data from seven New Mexico districts over two years, Rothstein said there is evidence that teachers often transfer to low-poverty schools so that their ratings will not be impacted. That mars efforts to bridge the achievement gap among students.

But under questioning by defense lawyer Jeffrey Wechsler, Rothstein acknowledged that conducting a broader analysis with additional data from more of the state’s 89 school districts would help paint a clearer picture of the situation. He also said teacher retention and recruitment in high-poverty schools is a problem nationwide and that he is not aware of any policies that New Mexico has in place to address the challenge.

He stood by his analysis that teachers who work in high-poverty schools score lower on evaluations than their counterparts in low-poverty schools by a rate of almost 10 percentage points.

“There is sufficient evidence to say the system is biased against teachers in low-income schools,” he said.

This is the fifth week of the nine-week trial. Next week, the defense will start calling its witnesses.