State lawmakers question PED about meeting new Yazzie/Martinez deadlines

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New Mexico Public Education Department Assistant Secretary of Policy and Technology Gregory Frostad speaks during a Legislative Education Study Committee meeting on May 29, 2025. (Photo by Austin Fisher / Source NM)

Members of the Legislative Education Study Committee voiced concerns this week about the tight deadline the New Mexico Public Education Department has to meet new court orders in the longstanding lawsuit concerning equitable public education.

The LESC met for the first time during the interim Thursday and received an update on the Yazzie/Martinez lawsuit. Parties in the case returned to court last month to consider a motion of non-compliance filed by the plaintiffs in September 2024. First Judicial District Court Judge Matthew Wilson agreed with the plaintiffs that the PED has not complied with previous court orders and ruled the state needs to produce a plan for providing equitable education for at-risk students and tracking progress.

According to court documents, the PED must identify an outside expert to assist with the development of the plan and file a status report by July 1. A draft plan must be filed with the court by Oct. 1 and a final plan must be available for review by the court by Nov. 3. 

Lawmakers questioned PED representatives about the court order and whether the department will be able to meet Wilson’s timeline.

“We are going to do whatever it takes to meet these deadlines,” PED Sec. Mariana Padilla told committee members. “We are not starting from scratch…we have so much ready to build upon, which is why I feel that this is doable. Is it going to be difficult? Absolutely.”

PED Assistant Secretary of Policy and Technology Greg Frostad told lawmakers that the department is currently working to identify an outside expert “as quickly as possible.”

Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero (D-Albuquerque) encouraged Padilla to take into consideration the voices of stakeholders from outside the PED, including advocacy organizations and the plaintiffs in the suit. She also asked Padilla to use the plaintiff’s motion as a guide when implementing the plan because it outlined nine primary goals for creating a multicultural and multilingual educational framework; an education workforce; increasing technology access; developing methods of accountability; and strengthening the capacity of the PED.

“We’re too programmed,” Roybal Caballero said during the meeting. “It takes a great deal of resolve…and commitment to say, ‘I’m going to take that bold leap and step outside of what I’m familiar with.’ Trust the experts that come from our state of New Mexico, the experts that have been delivering this core education to our students, despite or in spite of PED, and trust that what they said and stated and presented in the plaintiff’s motion is valuable.”

President Pro Tempore Sen. Mimi Stewart (D-Albuquerque) said she agreed with her colleague’s sentiments, but added that she believes the PED “has stepped up in a huge way” to address the court’s original findings in the suit: that the state was not providing Native students, English language learners, low-income students and students with disabilities equitable education they constitutionally have a right to. 

“I’ll say that I think part of our issue is that we lost our first judge. [The late] Judge [Sarah] Singleton listened to this for years and ruled, and I believe that she kind of understood where the problems were. But she’s no longer with us, and that has, I think, produced all of this lack of focus for all of us,” Stewart said. “I think this is a much bigger picture and I like the idea of an outside expert that will come in and look at everything we’ve done…Because we’ve not been doing nothing; we’ve been doing a lot.”


This post was originally authored and published by Leah Romero from via RSS Feed. to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.