A call to action for N.M. education

Our legislative and executive branches have been failing our children year after year for decades. The Latino Education Task Force sounded the alarm for 13 years. But after being shut out, ignored and taken for granted, we turned to the courts to get action. The Indian community also sued.

Judge Sarah Singleton responded with a blistering ruling and a mandate that both branches of government must finally follow the state constitution and come up with a way to fix this disaster by April (“Education or politics?” Aug. 21).

This is a historic victory. A victory this monumental comes along once in a lifetime. The Latino and Indian communities that brought this suit won, but all New Mexicans will reap the benefits of finally having an educated workforce. It will improve everyone’s quality of life. New Mexico will cease to be the worst state to raise a child.

But this won’t happen by itself or by allowing what’s been happening to continue.

Background on this education gamechanger: New Mexico’s education Titanic crew has been perpetually rearranging the deck chairs or repainting the chairs while we continue to sink. The catastrophic evidence is found in our dismal educational, social and economic standings in nationally.

The achievement gap between Latino and Anglo children is so vast that one expert said that it would take more than 100 years to eliminate that gap given the course we were on. This demands intervention strategies and a new course for our schools. But none has been provided by state government.

Singleton’s ruling talks about “at risk” children. But let’s face New Mexico’s new reality: The children being crushed by our broken education bus are Latino, Indian and black children; they make up 77 percent of all students.

So what’s to be done? A call to action. The New Mexico Educational Action Alliance, a nonpartisan statewide group that includes leaders from the Martínez v. State of New Mexico lawsuit, is inviting all New Mexicans to participate. The goal is to create a new education paradigm aimed at the “complete elimination of the achievement gap.” Group members are not interested in “closing” or “lowering” the gap. We want the complete elimination of that gap.

How do we do it? By developing a comprehensive plan with the input of all stakeholders: educators, business, faith-based groups, unions, government and most importantly, the affected populations of this suit. We must develop the comprehensive plan before we spend one cent of the new money that will be needed.

Good ideas abound in our state. But good ideas alone are not a plan. We need a plan. And that comprehensive plan will only work if every New Mexican has an opportunity to contribute to it.

Yes, this will take a little longer than throwing a plan together in a day or two. It might even take a year to do it right. So let’s get started.

Where will the money come from? We don’t care. The court told lawmakers and the governor to find it.

But a caution: Lawmakers and the gubernatorial candidates are busy with their individual plans to show Judge Singleton in April. Unfortunately, they’re meeting behind closed doors to devise the way they intend to “fix us.” No one has invited our input. No one has approached the folks who brought this suit. This cavalier, topdown approach is what doomed the “education reform” of the past eight years.

This is the reason we filed suit in the first place. Would the judge take kindly to that failed approach? Let’s do it right this time.

José Armas is an organizer of the Martinez lawsuit and the New Mexico Education Action Alliance. You can reach him with your ideas at armas@swcp.com