GRANTS, N.M. — After years of legal proceedings, delays, and promises, the state of New Mexico is now asking the public to help shape the future of education.
Starting next week, the New Mexico Public Education Department (PED), in partnership with the Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation, will hold a series of community engagement sessions across the state to gather public input on the Martinez/Yazzie Action Plan.
These open-house style meetings are part of the state’s formal response to the 2018 Yazzie/Martinez ruling—a landmark case that declared New Mexico schools had failed to meet its constitutional duty to provide an adequate education for all students.
The sessions are designed not only to inform, but to give voice to families, educators, and students whose needs were historically overlooked or underfunded.
One of the sessions will be held in Zuni Pueblo on August 14, making it the only in-person opportunity for residents in or near Cibola County to directly participate. The session will run from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Zuni Wellness Center.
The plan under development, known as the Martinez/Yazzie Action Plan, will guide how New Mexico supports four key student groups identified in the court ruling: Native American students, English language learners, students with disabilities, and students from low-income families.
These groups form a significant portion of the student body across the state—and in Cibola County.
The upcoming engagement sessions aim to gather community insight and feedback on several central questions:
• What does it mean to create a school environment that reflects students’ cultures and languages?
• What do students and teachers need to succeed?
• What role does funding play in academic success?
• What responsibility does the state have to fix decades of educational inequity?
The format will be informal. Attendees can arrive at any time between 4 and 7 p.m., and will be able to speak one-on-one with facilitators, participate in small group discussions, and submit written feedback on-site. Free meals, childcare, translation services, and ASL interpretation will be provided.
This is the first time the state is opening up the planning process to the public in such a direct way.
What is Yazzie-Martinez?
The Yazzie/Martinez case, originally filed in 2014 and decided in 2018, found that New Mexico’s education system was not fulfilling Article XII, Section 1 of the state constitution.
That section of the constitu- tion requires the state to establish and maintain “a uniform system of free public schools sufficient for the education of, and open to, all the children of school age.” The court’s ruling concluded that the state’s system, in both design and outcome, failed to serve Native students, English learners, disabled students, and those living in poverty.
Rather than appeal, the state accepted the ruling and promised reform. Yet in the years since, critics have pointed to slow progress, vague implementation, and persistent disparities in student outcomes.
In Cibola County, those disparities are still visible. Grants-Cibola County Schools (GCCS) has made progress, especially in math, but academic gaps remain across ethnicity, income, and geography.
GCCS’s 2024–2025 end-of-year data shows that reading proficiency across grades:
K–12 rose from 26.6 percent to 33 percent. Math scores for grades 3– 8 tripled from 7.9 percent to 25 percent.
At the high school level, math proficiency rose from 27.5 percent to 53 percent, and reading increased from 27.4 percent to 43 percent.
The data also revealed that despite work to improve scores, demographic disparities remain.
American Indian students ended the year at 20 percent proficiency in math and 25 percent in reading—well below district averages. Hispanic students reached 25 percent in math and 43 percent in reading, while Caucasian students led with 33 percent and 44 percent, respectively. Laguna and Acoma high school students posted some of the strongest math gains, each finishing above 55 percent proficiency. Navajo students, however, ended the year with just 16 percent in math and 22 percent in reading.
These are precisely the types of outcomes the Yazzie/Martinez ruling seeks to address.
To guide its plan, the Martinez/Yazzie Action Plan committee has identified five focus areas, each rooted in the court's findings:
• Equitable access to high-quality instruction
• Access to culturally and linguistically responsive educators
• Academic, social, and behavioral support services
• Fair and effective funding to meet student needs
• Data and accountability systems to drive continuous improvement At the Zuni session, and at others statewide, these topics will serve as the basis for discussion. Attendees will be invited to respond to questions such as:
• How should funding be distributed to reflect student need?
• What kind of teacher support or training is necessary?
• What does a culturally relevant curriculum actually look like in practice?
• How can communities hold the system accountable?
State officials have emphasized that the feedback gathered will inform the final version of the Martinez/Yazzie Action Plan, which is expected to be released in 2025.
Does New Mexico Fund Academic Success?
In the years since the Yazzie/Martinez ruling, New Mexico has steadily increased its education spending.
In Fiscal Year 2025, the state approved a record $10.22 billion budget—$4.76 billion of which is going to K–12 public education. That’s 47 percent of all state spending.
Compare that to just five years ago.
In 2021, education funding was $3.46 billion out of a $7.62 billion budget—about 45 percent. Since then, the state has added over $1.3 billion in annual education spending, including significant investments in teacher salaries, universal school meals, transportation, summer reading programs, and career pathways like CTE (career and technical education).
This funding shift reflects the legislature’s effort to not just increase education spending overall, but to target it more effectively—especially toward the student groups identified in the court ruling: Native American students, English learners, students with disabilities, and those living in poverty.
How Do I Participate?
As New Mexico again finds itself ranked 50th in education nationally, according to the Nation’s Report Card, the stakes could not be higher. For communities like Cibola— where so much of the adult population has been affected by Yazzie/Martinez, it is deeply personal.
Online options for public comment are also available, and the LANL Foundation is encouraging anyone unable to attend in person to submit feedback through the plan’s official website.
For more information or to submit feedback, visit www.MartinezYazzieActionPlan. org. Two virtual meetings will also be held later in August for those unable to attend in person.
This is a critical moment for education in New Mexico. Whether in Zuni, Grants, or elsewhere in the state, families and educators are being asked to help shape the system that shapes the future generations.