SANTA FE, N.M. — Video above:New Mexico Public Education Department Secretary Mariana Padilla was joined alongside Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, New Mexico’s Lt. Gov., Howie Morales, New Mexico Higher Education Department acting secretary, Stephanie Rodriguez, and cabinet secretary for the Early Childhood Education Care Department, Elizabeth Groginsky, for a roundtable discussion on the state’s education at the New Mexico State Capitol on Tuesday, Sept. 17.
Padilla and Lujan Grisham addressed progress as well as concerns with the state’s education. According to Annie E. Casey Kids Count Data, New Mexico has ranked 50th in education nationwide over the past eight years. KOAT’s Faith Egbuonu asked questions regarding Padilla’s plans to address the state’s education. The full Q & A transcript with the governor and Padilla is toward the end of the article.
“When you use the supplemental income and access to programs, data, it shows that New Mexico moves from last place in the nation to child poverty, into the 22nd. This is incredible news for the state because we’ve been long saying that the results that we’re seeing on the ground with families are reflected in some of the antiquated two-year-old and again, antiquated, narrow data that the census, typically uses,” Lujan Grisham stated during Tuesday’s roundtable.
“The folks in this room who are completely responsible for the policies and efforts that are beginning to show incredible results in closing those really wide proficiency and achievement gaps, that are, in fact, paying off, and their hard work is now the protocol for most of the states in the nation,” Lujan Grisham said.
Lujan Grisham appointed Padilla as secretary of NMPED on Sept. 10 following Dr. Arsenio Romero’s resignation in Aug. 2024. Padilla is the fifth secretary to be appointed under Lujan Grisham’s administration since 2019.
“The time now is to focus on a parallel accountability track, one, inside PED and the entire children’s cabinet and two inside the schools themselves. It can’t be focused on one or the other, which is been sort of typical of government, including to some degree, ours. Our approach focused on one and the other and one and on the other, you’re going to see us have a parallel impact. We should show the same kind of striking results that the updated census data showed us this morning,” Lujan Grisham said…