SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO—Among the many education bills that are working their way through legislative committee, those sponsored by Representative Tomás E. Salazar are designed to ensure a multicultural, bilingual framework is at the core of the New Mexico education system. The bills must be passed in the House Appropriations Committee and receive funding to move forward in the legislature. The committee is currently considering the public school budgets and intends to finalize its budget bill by next week.
“More than 75 percent of New Mexico public school students are culturally and linguistically diverse. This diversity should be celebrated and must also be reflected in curriculum and teacher development,” said Representative Salazar. “Judge Singleton’s order is clear—we can no longer violate the constitutional rights of a majority of our students.”
HB 111, HB 120, and HB 159 were developed out of the Transform Education NM Platform, a comprehensive blueprint to fix New Mexico’s schools. Based on the input of 300+ diverse community stakeholders and two million pages of documentation and expert testimony of educators, economists, and academic researchers as part of the Yazzie/Martinez trial, the platform is the roadmap to successfully transforming the state’s education system.
“We know that a multicultural education is essential for our students to learn and succeed,” said Preston Sanchez, plaintiff attorney on the Yazzie lawsuit. “We urge our legislators and our governor to support these bills and to include them in HB 2. The success of New Mexico’s schools depends on making sure these bills are passed and fully funded.”
Research shows a multicultural and multilingual education approach allows students to maintain their language and identity, resulting in a marked improvement in learning achievement. The court found that the state is not meeting its own duties and responsibilities for a multicultural education established in the New Mexico Indian Education Act, Hispanic Education Act, and Bilingual Multicultural Education Act, which Representative Salazar’s pieces of legislation aim to fix.
“English language learners (ELLs) are the lowest performing group across all sub-groups when they don’t have the support they need. Also, indigenous languages are in peril. This is due in great part to current public school policies that must be addressed,” said UNM professor and bilingual learning expert Rebecca Blum Martinez. “We have an obligation to assist Indigenous and Hispanic students as much as possible while honoring the diverse cultural identity that is the hallmark of our state. These bills provide our teachers with the pedagogical tools they need to be successful.”
“These pieces of legislation, and everything else in the Transform Education platform, is what our students, and future generations of students deserve,” said Edward Tabet-Cubero, member of the Transform Education NM Coalition. “Thanks to all the information and guidance that came out of the Yazzie/Martinez trial, the court has given a clear direction for our state’s education system, and the multicultural platform is a critical component to fixing that system and doing right by our students. The time to fix our education system is now.”
Information on other legislation that is part of the Transform Education NM platform can be found here: https://transformeducationnm.org/resources/. These changes will realize New Mexico’s constitutional mandate for a sufficient public education system.