{"id":620533,"date":"2018-08-30T10:34:58","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T16:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=620533"},"modified":"2018-08-31T08:41:19","modified_gmt":"2018-08-31T14:41:19","slug":"years-of-frustration-lie-behind-landmark-school-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/08\/years-of-frustration-lie-behind-landmark-school-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Years of frustration lie behind landmark school lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_620537\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-620537\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yazzie-771x552.jpg\" alt=\"Wilhelmina Yazzie\" width=\"771\" height=\"552\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yazzie-771x552.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yazzie-336x241.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yazzie-768x550.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yazzie-1170x838.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yazzie.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Brandon N. Sanchez \/ Gallup Independent<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wilhelmina Yazzie and her son Xavier Nex of Gallup, NM, are two plaintiffs on the Singleton education decision.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>For Wilhelmina Yazzie, joining the groundbreaking lawsuit against New Mexico wasn\u2019t an easy thing to do. It was the only thing to do.<\/p>\n<p>The Navajo mother of three says she\u2019s no different from the dozens of other parents who were party to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maldef.org\/assets\/pdf\/2018-07-20d-101-cv-2014-00793_Decision_and_Order.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Yazzie v. New Mexico<\/i><\/a>, which declared the state\u2019s public education system unconstitutional. By most accounts, she is no different from tens of thousands of New Mexico parents in general.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want the same things that every parent wants for their children,\u201d the 39-year-old legal administrator said.<\/p>\n<p>Yazzie lives in Gallup, on the edge of the Navajo Nation, where schools in the Gallup-McKinley district lack everything from funding and qualified teachers to counselors, tutors, social workers and computers. They are wanting in advanced placement classes, fall flat in after-school programs, and in the main, fail to offer the language and culture programs, summer school, or other services that help children succeed.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/searchlightnm.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Searchlight New Mexico<\/a>, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to investigative journalism. Read its Raising New Mexico series\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/series\/raising-new-mexico\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">by clicking here<\/a>. Support its work\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsmatch.org\/organizations\/searchlight-new-mexico\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Related<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/08\/how-the-yazzie-case-could-be-a-game-changer-for-nm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">How the Yazzie case could be a &#8216;game-changer&#8217; for NM<\/a><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>One year, her son Xavier\u2019s school, Jefferson Elementary, didn\u2019t even have enough money to buy basic supplies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis teacher asked parents to bring in old socks to clean the dry-erase boards,\u201d Yazzie recalled.<\/p>\n<p>Another year, she discovered that Xavier &#8212; a straight-A student &#8212; wasn\u2019t scoring at grade level on national achievement tests. When she asked school administrators for a tutor to help him catch up, she drew blank stares.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was like, \u201cYour child is getting good grades. What more do you want?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>At John F. Kennedy Middle School she was even more alarmed by what she saw. More accurately, what alarmed her was what she didn\u2019t see: textbooks. Xavier didn\u2019t bring his books home to study. The school didn\u2019t allow it. There weren\u2019t enough textbooks to go around, his teachers told her.<\/p>\n<p>Yazzie doesn\u2019t blame the teachers, however. She blames the leadership. She says Xavier, now 15, and her son Reece, 13, have a laptop and broadband at home, so they can use the internet to study. But large portions of the Navajo Nation don\u2019t have computers or online access.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd those students get zeroes on their homework because they have nothing to study with,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>For years, the public schools failed to respond to her complaints.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll we\u2019ve heard is \u2018Sorry we can\u2019t do that or sorry we don\u2019t have that or sorry we can\u2019t give that to your children,'&#8221; she said. &#8220;But it\u2019s not a good enough excuse.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Those sentiments are front and center in what is being called one of the most significant education lawsuits in New Mexico history, a case filed in March 2014 and concluded July 20 in a blistering 54-page ruling from First Judicial District Judge Sarah Singleton. The judge declared the state\u2019s public education system a \u201cdismal failure\u201d that violates students\u2019 rights under the constitution to a sufficient education.<\/p>\n<p>The suit is part of a decades-long national trend that\u2019s seen coalitions of parents, children and school districts challenge their state\u2019s public school systems. These cases argue that funds are distributed in arbitrary and inequitable ways, leaving at-risk students without the basic education they need to go to college, pursue a career, contribute to society, and succeed in the modern world.<\/p>\n<p>School finance litigation has unfolded in <a href=\"http:\/\/schoolfunding.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/COURTS-AND-KIDS-2017-Supplement.-07.12.17-.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more than 17 states<\/a> in the past decade, where plaintiffs include low-income students, those who aren\u2019t fluent in English and others who are at risk of academic failure. In New Mexico, at-risk children include Native Americans, English language learners, Hispanic-Latino students and students who have a disability.<\/p>\n<p>Pursuing equality in court has its cost: New Mexico has already dedicated more than $4 million in legal fees to defend itself in the Yazzie lawsuit and in a second school-funding suit filed a month later. That amount of money is enough to cover the salaries of 93 teachers for a year, at the current average of $47,000 annually.<\/p>\n<p>A better option is to have lawmakers enact reforms on their own, without involving a court, according to Maura McInerney, legal director of the Education Law Center, a nonprofit legal advocacy organization that represented plaintiffs in a landmark New Jersey school-spending suit and is pursuing a similar case in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe best way to reform the public education system is to have state legislation that equitably and properly distributes funds in the first place,\u201d McInerney said.<\/p>\n<p>However the reforms unfold, a funding increase will, in the long run, be beneficial, she added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe New Mexico case will have a significant impact,\u201d she predicted. \u201cWhen you make a long-term investment in fair and equitable education, you make a very critical difference in the lives of children.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpovertylaw.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty<\/a> (NMCLP), the legal advocacy group that represented the Yazzie plaintiffs, seconds that opinion. In the run-up to filing the lawsuit, the Albuquerque-based nonprofit gathered substantial evidence from parents, advocates, experts and educators that New Mexico\u2019s method of allocating funds to schools violated the \u201ceducation clause\u201d of the state constitution as well as state statutes.<\/p>\n<p>Finding plaintiffs wasn\u2019t difficult, said Preston Sanchez, an NMCLP staff attorney, who traveled the state from Pe\u00f1asco to Gadsden and beyond to interview parents. \u201cThere have been so many people who have been negatively affected by the state\u2019s poor public school system,\u201d Sanchez said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe case isn\u2019t just about money,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd it isn\u2019t just about spending. It\u2019s about educational opportunities. It\u2019s about whether a program is being provided to English language learners. It\u2019s about addressing students\u2019 cultural differences and unique cultural needs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The plaintiffs\u2019 argument was fortified and expanded when the Los Angeles-based <a href=\"http:\/\/www.maldef.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund<\/a> (MALDEF) filed a second spending suit, in April 2014. <i>Martinez v. New Mexico<\/i>, brought on behalf of more than 50 plaintiffs, argued that New Mexico\u2019s K-12 system not only violated the constitution\u2019s education clause, but also violated the state\u2019s Indian Education Act, its Bilingual Multicultural Education Act and its guarantees of equality for bilingual Spanish speakers and children of Spanish descent. The two cases were consolidated, forming a single suit with plaintiffs from nearly all corners of the state, including 13 school districts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe state of New Mexico is failing its public school students and has failed them for so long that there now exists an entire generation of children in this state who do not possess the basic capabilities to meaningfully function in modern society,\u201d the plaintiffs argued.<\/p>\n<p>Singleton agreed, ruling that the state \u201cis responsible for assuring that students receive an adequate education.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The decision is personal validation for Yazzie, whose mother was a college graduate and a school teacher on the Navajo Nation for more than 30 years. Yazzie herself graduated from the University of New Mexico and recently passed the Navajo Nation Bar Exam. All three of her siblings have college degrees.<\/p>\n<p>A school system that lacks something as central to education as schoolbooks? The thought can\u2019t help but rankle her.<\/p>\n<p>Yazzie recalled how during her own school days she lugged home textbooks from Smith Lake Elementary School that essentially described Native Americans as savages. Some of her teachers sang the praises of Christopher Columbus. The school never had enough teachers, counselors, computers, classrooms or even school buses.<\/p>\n<p>But at least it had books.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe lawsuit is a great first step,\u201d Yazzie said. She said it particularly honored the memory of her mother, who raised four children on the slim salary she received as a teacher at the Navajo Nation\u2019s Head Start program and at an elementary school in Casamero Lake.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I heard the news that we won, I really couldn\u2019t believe it,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I looked up, and I said, \u2018Mom, you know what? We did it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p><i>Reporter Amy Linn can be reached at <a href=\"mailto:amy@searchlightnm.com\">amy@searchlightnm.com<\/a>.<\/i><i><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tired of hearing &#8216;no,&#8217; plaintiff says, taking NM to court was her only option.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":620537,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[234,125,107],"class_list":["post-620533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-children","tag-education","tag-roundhouse","series-raising-new-mexico"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}