Committee advances memorial to study public education governance amid Martinez/Yazzie concerns
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Summary
House Memorial 30, which requests a study by the Legislative Education Study Committee to assess governance, roles and statutory barriers across early childhood, K–12 and higher education, received a do-pass recommendation; witnesses urged inclusive stakeholder representation and measurable guardrails tied to Martinez/Yazzie remedies.
Sponsor introduced House Memorial 30 as a request for a study of public education governance, describing the memorial's goal as convening a broad working group—including tribes, the Public Education Department, early childhood and higher-education representatives—to review statutes, assess roles and responsibilities, and recommend how to improve system coherence and long-term planning. The sponsor said the memorial would help align investments and reduce overlapping responsibilities.
Jessica Hathaway, deputy director of the Legislative Education Study Committee (LESC), framed the memorial as a tool to map the system and translate those maps into research questions and a roadmap for long-term goals, including work tied to the Martinez/Yazzie response. An outside foundation representative and multiple education stakeholders—charter schools, advocacy organizations, school boards and superintendents—testified in favor of the memorial, saying a study could support planning, oversight and cross-sector alignment.
Several committee members pressed for specifics on inclusion and guardrails. Representative Torres Velasquez asked who would be at the table and recounted past concerns that plaintiffs and working families were not invited to earlier processes; Jessica Hathaway and the sponsor said LESC would convene the work, the memorial calls for inviting tribal nations and nonprofits, and the committee should give direction on how inclusive engagement and research questions should be structured. Representative Barbagallo asked how the study would include measurable student-outcome guardrails rather than creating additional planning layers; LESC staff said the memorial specifically requests statutory and fiscal review and would present options on structure, composition, timelines and guards for accountability.
Public testimony included support from Jamie Gonzales (public charter schools), Amanda Aragon (New Mexico Kids Can), Lily May (New Mexico School Board Association) and Hope Morales (Teach Plus New Mexico). Sarah Salazar, a parent of a student with multiple disabilities, supported the memorial but requested explicit inclusion of students with disabilities in the stakeholder list.
Representative Cole moved a do-pass on House Memorial 30; Representative Chatfield seconded. The chair asked for opposition, none was voiced, and the committee issued a do-pass recommendation (the transcript did not record a roll-call vote tally). Next steps: the committee recommended the memorial advance to allow LESC to begin the statutory review and stakeholder engagement design.