PADILLA TELLS ME SHE PLANS TO STICK IT OUT TO THE VERY END. MARIANA PADILLA IS NOW THE FIFTH NEW MEXICO PUBLIC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT SECRETARY UNDER GOVERNOR MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM’S ADMINISTRATION. PADILLA, APPOINTED BY THE GOVERNOR JUST TWO WEEKS AFTER DOCTOR ARSENIO ROMERO ABRUPTLY RESIGNED THE POSITION LAST MONTH. A HIGH TURNOVER RATE SINCE 2019. NEW MEXICO LAST IN EDUCATION AMONG 50 STATES, ACCORDING TO THE KIDS COUNT DATA RELEASED. THIS YEAR. THE STATE BOUNCING BETWEEN THE 49TH AND 50TH SPOT FOR OVER A DECADE. BOTH THE GOVERNOR AND PADILLA, ADDRESSING CONCERNS WITH ME AT THE ROUNDHOUSE TODAY. STUDENTS ULTIMATELY SUFFER RIGHT WITH WHAT CONSTANT LEADERSHIP CHANGE. AND WE’RE STILL LAST IN EDUCATION. YOU SAID IT’S NOT ENOUGH. LIKE YOU GUYS ARE EXPRESSING YOUR EFFORTS AND EVERYTHING THAT YOU GUYS ARE DOING. BUT JUST A FEW MINUTES AGO, YOU SAID IT’S NOT ENOUGH, RIGHT? SO HOW ELSE DO YOU PLAN TO TAKE ON THIS CHALLENGE? IN ADDRESSING THE STATE’S EDUCATION, BECAUSE WE HEARD OF STRUCTURED LITERACY, WE HEARD OF CHECKING THE DATA. I’M GOING TO DISAGREE WITH THAT PREMISE. THE FORMER SECRETARY AND MOST OF THE OTHER SECRETARIES, WHICH IS NOT THEIR JOB, AREN’T IN THE CLASSROOM. THEY’RE EDUCATORS WHO ARE MENTORED BY THEIR PRINCIPALS, WHO ARE PERFORMING UNDER THEIR SUPERINTENDENTS, WHO ARE THEN RESPONSIBLE TO A SCHOOL BOARD, OF WHICH WE HAVE VERY LIMITED POWER TO ENGAGE IN A DIRECT FASHION. THANK YOU, GOVERNOR, IN REGARDS TO WHAT YOU DISAGREE WITH, ARE YOU DISAGREEING WITH THE FACT THAT WE’RE 50TH IN EDUCATION? THAT’S WHAT YOU’RE STATING. SO THE DATA REALLY WASN’T MY DISAGREEMENT WITH YOU. AND ACTUALLY I HAD NO DISAGREEMENT WITH YOU BECAUSE WE’RE WE’RE PROFESSIONALS AND WE HAVE DIFFERENT STYLES. IT’S JUST THAT WE’RE HEARING THE SAME THING ALL THE TIME, AND THE STUDENTS ARE SUFFERING, AND THE PARENTS ARE CONCERNED. SO MY QUESTION WAS, WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO TO TAKE ON THIS CHALLENGE? HAVE BEEN HERE SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE ADMINISTRATION. I’VE BEEN CONSISTENTLY WORKING ON EDUCATION, THE THINGS THAT WE’RE SAYING ARE OUR PLAN, THE STRATEGIES THEY’VE BEEN CONSISTENTLY OUR STRATEGIES. WE’VE BEEN WORKING ON THESE THROUGHOUT THE ADMINISTRATION. SO ABSOLUTELY, I WILL BE HERE TILL THE END. FAITH EGBUONU KOAT ACTION SEVEN NEWS SAYS SHE PLANS TO IMPROVE
Gov. Lujan Grisham, new head of Public Education Dept. secretary address concerns
“I will be here until the end. I made that commitment to governor, and to our state and to myself,” NMPED Secretary Mariana Padilla told KOAT
Updated: 10:19 PM MDT Sep 17, 2024
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. MORE: New Mexico Public Education Department Secretary resignation raises questions 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. Related: Governor appoints new public education secretary”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. Note: Supplemental Poverty Measure Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is referring to regarding updated census data. According to New Mexico Voice for Children, Communications Director, Sharon Kayne, “this is a new poverty rate from the Census that wasn’t available when the Kids Count rankings were determined.” “I want to just reiterate how proud I am of this team, how incredibly capable they are, how lucky we are to have, secretary designate Padilla, at the helm directly in the department providing this continuity and insight,” Lujan Grisham added.Padilla on improvements within the state’s education system “We’re ensuring that kids get support early on and that support and interventions continue without any delays or gaps throughout the K-12 system and into secondary education and into career. This improvement around child poverty is significant. It’s significant for child well-being. But we also know that if we don’t address things like the impacts of poverty, kids are not prepared and ready to learn in the classroom,” Padilla said during Tuesday’s roundtable. “At the public education department, we’ve been focused on increasing school resources and prioritizing the things that we know make a difference. We know what makes a difference for kids. And in this work, we’ve made gains in student achievement, particularly in literacy. As been mentioned, we are training all of our educators in elementary school and will soon be training middle school teachers in structured literacy,” Padilla said. AttendanceRelated: CYFD: 789 truancy referrals amid chronic absenteeism in New Mexico schools”We’re also making gains in attendance. Last year we saw 7% improvement in our chronic absenteeism. And that’s because of the investments and steps we’re taking at the state, the efforts of ensuring that we have funding for attendance and interventionists that are working with students and working with families to address the issues that are preventing them from being in the classroom,” Padilla said. “So, these gains are notable. But we are clear this is not enough and it’s not good enough. Our students deserve better, and they’re counting on us, to put our full effort in creating the best educational system that we can, I have a strong belief in the potential of our students and our educators, and I know what they’re capable of,” Padilla added.Faith Egbuonu: I have a question for the governor, but I also have a question for Mariana.The students ultimately suffer with constant leadership change, and we’re still last in education. You (Mariana) said it’s not enough. You all are expressing your efforts and everything that you all are doing. But just a few minutes ago, you said it’s not enough, right? So how else do you plan to take on this challenge in addressing the city’s education, because we heard of structured literacy, we heard of checking the data. When we did a one- on-one interview with Dr. Arsenio Romero, he was stating the same thing and then he left, about a year and six months later. So, do you plan to stick around and see it through because our students are suffering. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham: I’m going to disagree with that premise. The former secretary and most of the other secretaries, which is not their job aren’t in the classroom, there are educators who are mentored by their principals who are performing under their superintendents who are then responsible to a school board, of which we have very limited power to engage in a direct fashion.That’s done really in our state. Right, wrong or indifferent. But it’s a fact by collaboration. The person who’s been the constant collaborator has been Mariana Padilla. So, I just reject that premise. Also, the poverty standards, aren’t in any of those outcomes. And while I worry a little bit about that two-year-old lag data that ranks New Mexico, and you have to look inside that ranking, it’s not in every area. It’s not a very reflective, data point, frankly. But I don’t care whether it says 48, 42 in some areas, 50 tied with someone else. It took Mississippi ten years without Covid to move the needle. It took us a year. It’s showing that we can, with concentrated efforts, do amazing work. But what I need now is for the schools to embrace as robustly as we did with literacy. Most of that work was stood up by Mariana and the two other secretaries in this room who were also in those literacy mentoring classrooms. And the results are amazing. And the year before that, we released data showing the biggest impacts were for the hardest to serve students, tribal students. So, representing Native Americans, community, same thing, poverty, distance, access to schools in a way that’s meaningful. Particularly there was special education, who’s missing here is Dr. Cage, who’s out of town, who is also now building not only that collaboration, but for the first time, communicating with parents of special education students. So, I want to at least from my perspective, I hope I don’t sound to argumentative, but the continuity needs to be in the classroom. That’s why we proposed more hours, more days, more time extended learning. What PED needs is someone who can distinguish between a role in the classroom, maybe academic efforts that are, through the university. So, I’ll use that most recent example. And someone can focus on the department’s accountability more directly. And each Secretary’s brought their own sort of review of how to do that. And I’ve long been frustrated that it has to be both. You can’t choose one of those aspects. PED can do better, and schools can do better, and then we can provide the bridge. So, I just want to point that out. It makes it sound like having a change in a cabinet secretary means kids didn’t have access in the classroom. And that’s not true and then I do think your other question is incredibly, fair and poignant about the secretary. What is it exactly that she will do that’s different here? And I appreciate that you’ve asked that question. Faith Egbuonu: So, in regard to what you disagree with— are you disagreeing with the fact that we’re 50th in education? That’s what you’re stating? I’m going off the Data Count.Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham: Yes, it’s both. There are other data points which we’re going to really start to push out and talk about because it depends on what you’re reading, how old it is and in what areas you’re looking for improvements. So, the data really wasn’t my disagreement with you, and actually, I had no disagreement with you because we’re professionals, and we have different styles.But I was just saying that the way in which I heard your question about having different leadership really creates a hardship. You know, I would disagree with that characterization for a student in the classroom.Faith Egbuonu: That was my next question. When we had a one-on-one with Dr. Arsenio Romero. He was on it. He wanted to help improve the state’s education, whatever the case may be. So, I’m not comparing your (Mariana) work to his. It’s that we’re hearing the same thing all the time. And the students are suffering, and the parents are concerned. So, my question was, what do you plan to do to take on this challenge? Because I know it’s a huge challenge. Now in regard to New Mexico being 50th in education, that just came out this year with the kids count. It’s not to take away from the strides that you guys are making—and governor, to your point with Mississippi and New Mexico, I did a report on that. I care about the state’s education. It is a question on people’s mind when it comes to the parents and our viewers. We get it all the time. You (Mariana) are the fifth person right now under her administration. So, people are just concerned. We heard about the structure literacy. We heard about the data. We just want to know are you going stick it out and see it through. We want to see great strides with our education. We want the state to continue to do well.Mariana Padilla: Faith, Thank you. I’ll just build off of the governor’s really great response. And I said in my introductory remarks, I have been here since the beginning of the administration. I’ve been consistently working on education, the things that we’re saying our plan, the strategies they’ve been consistently our strategies. We’ve been working on these throughout the administration. So absolutely, I will be here till the end. I made that commitment to Governor, and to our state and to myself that this is an opportunity. Serving in this administration for all of us is is an opportunity to do all that we can for me, for the children and families of our state. And, and I will be here until the end and I’m excited to, to be doing that at the public education department.Note: Padilla responds to another question from a journalist, then circles back to mine from earlier in response to her previous statement: “So, these gains are notable. But we are clear this is not enough and it’s not good enough. Our students deserve better, and they’re counting on us, to put our full effort in creating the best educational system that we can, I have a strong belief in the potential of our students and our educators, and I know what they’re capable of,” Padilla added.And, I’ll go back to you, Faith. It’s not so much that it’s not enough, it’s that the work isn’t done, and the work continues. We haven’t stopped. There hasn’t been a hesitation or a slowdown on any of this effort. It has been consistent throughout the administration, and the leadership. And I’ll say for myself in my role in this, in this office, has been completely consistent and focused.Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham: This poverty data is very telling about the conditions in which our families will be in, which means they’ll have more opportunities. And I don’t want that to sound like I’m pushing back on other reporters. We invited you guys because we appreciate your questions, and we think they are reflective of how parents and schools are feeling and students. So, we want to address those head on.View Mariana Padilla’s biography, here.Stay updated on the latest news updates with the KOAT app. You can download it here.
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.
MORE: New Mexico Public Education Department Secretary resignation raises questions
New Mexico Kids Can
2024 NM Kids Count, Rankings: New Mexico ranks 50th for education nationwide.
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.
Annie E. Casey Foundation
2024 NM Kids Count Data: New Mexico ranks 50th in the nation for education
“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.
Related: Governor appoints new public education secretary
“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.
Annie E. Casey Foundation
2024 NM Kids Count Data: Overall Rank for New Mexico, 50
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.
Note: Supplemental Poverty Measure Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is referring to regarding updated census data. According to New Mexico Voice for Children, Communications Director, Sharon Kayne, “this is a new poverty rate from the Census that wasn’t available when the Kids Count rankings were determined.”
“I want to just reiterate how proud I am of this team, how incredibly capable they are, how lucky we are to have, secretary designate Padilla, at the helm directly in the department providing this continuity and insight,” Lujan Grisham added.
Padilla on improvements within the state’s education system
“We’re ensuring that kids get support early on and that support and interventions continue without any delays or gaps throughout the K-12 system and into secondary education and into career. This improvement around child poverty is significant. It’s significant for child well-being. But we also know that if we don’t address things like the impacts of poverty, kids are not prepared and ready to learn in the classroom,” Padilla said during Tuesday’s roundtable.
“At the public education department, we’ve been focused on increasing school resources and prioritizing the things that we know make a difference. We know what makes a difference for kids. And in this work, we’ve made gains in student achievement, particularly in literacy. As been mentioned, we are training all of our educators in elementary school and will soon be training middle school teachers in structured literacy,” Padilla said.
Attendance
Related: CYFD: 789 truancy referrals amid chronic absenteeism in New Mexico schools
“We’re also making gains in attendance. Last year we saw 7% improvement in our chronic absenteeism. And that’s because of the investments and steps we’re taking at the state, the efforts of ensuring that we have funding for attendance and interventionists that are working with students and working with families to address the issues that are preventing them from being in the classroom,” Padilla said.
“So, these gains are notable. But we are clear this is not enough and it’s not good enough. Our students deserve better, and they’re counting on us, to put our full effort in creating the best educational system that we can, I have a strong belief in the potential of our students and our educators, and I know what they’re capable of,” Padilla added.
Faith Egbuonu: I have a question for the governor, but I also have a question for Mariana.
The students ultimately suffer with constant leadership change, and we’re still last in education. You (Mariana) said it’s not enough. You all are expressing your efforts and everything that you all are doing. But just a few minutes ago, you said it’s not enough, right? So how else do you plan to take on this challenge in addressing the city’s education, because we heard of structured literacy, we heard of checking the data. When we did a one- on-one interview with Dr. Arsenio Romero, he was stating the same thing and then he left, about a year and six months later. So, do you plan to stick around and see it through because our students are suffering.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham: I’m going to disagree with that premise. The former secretary and most of the other secretaries, which is not their job aren’t in the classroom, there are educators who are mentored by their principals who are performing under their superintendents who are then responsible to a school board, of which we have very limited power to engage in a direct fashion.
That’s done really in our state. Right, wrong or indifferent. But it’s a fact by collaboration. The person who’s been the constant collaborator has been Mariana Padilla. So, I just reject that premise. Also, the poverty standards, aren’t in any of those outcomes. And while I worry a little bit about that two-year-old lag data that ranks New Mexico, and you have to look inside that ranking, it’s not in every area.
It’s not a very reflective, data point, frankly. But I don’t care whether it says 48, 42 in some areas, 50 tied with someone else. It took Mississippi ten years without Covid to move the needle. It took us a year. It’s showing that we can, with concentrated efforts, do amazing work. But what I need now is for the schools to embrace as robustly as we did with literacy.
Most of that work was stood up by Mariana and the two other secretaries in this room who were also in those literacy mentoring classrooms. And the results are amazing. And the year before that, we released data showing the biggest impacts were for the hardest to serve students, tribal students. So, representing Native Americans, community, same thing, poverty, distance, access to schools in a way that’s meaningful.
Particularly there was special education, who’s missing here is Dr. Cage, who’s out of town, who is also now building not only that collaboration, but for the first time, communicating with parents of special education students. So, I want to at least from my perspective, I hope I don’t sound to argumentative, but the continuity needs to be in the classroom.
That’s why we proposed more hours, more days, more time extended learning. What PED needs is someone who can distinguish between a role in the classroom, maybe academic efforts that are, through the university. So, I’ll use that most recent example. And someone can focus on the department’s accountability more directly. And each Secretary’s brought their own sort of review of how to do that. And I’ve long been frustrated that it has to be both. You can’t choose one of those aspects. PED can do better, and schools can do better, and then we can provide the bridge. So, I just want to point that out. It makes it sound like having a change in a cabinet secretary means kids didn’t have access in the classroom. And that’s not true and then I do think your other question is incredibly, fair and poignant about the secretary. What is it exactly that she will do that’s different here? And I appreciate that you’ve asked that question.
Faith Egbuonu: So, in regard to what you disagree with— are you disagreeing with the fact that we’re 50th in education? That’s what you’re stating? I’m going off the Data Count.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham: Yes, it’s both. There are other data points which we’re going to really start to push out and talk about because it depends on what you’re reading, how old it is and in what areas you’re looking for improvements. So, the data really wasn’t my disagreement with you, and actually, I had no disagreement with you because we’re professionals, and we have different styles.
But I was just saying that the way in which I heard your question about having different leadership really creates a hardship. You know, I would disagree with that characterization for a student in the classroom.
Faith Egbuonu: That was my next question. When we had a one-on-one with Dr. Arsenio Romero. He was on it. He wanted to help improve the state’s education, whatever the case may be. So, I’m not comparing your (Mariana) work to his. It’s that we’re hearing the same thing all the time. And the students are suffering, and the parents are concerned.
So, my question was, what do you plan to do to take on this challenge? Because I know it’s a huge challenge. Now in regard to New Mexico being 50th in education, that just came out this year with the kids count. It’s not to take away from the strides that you guys are making—and governor, to your point with Mississippi and New Mexico, I did a report on that.
I care about the state’s education. It is a question on people’s mind when it comes to the parents and our viewers. We get it all the time. You (Mariana) are the fifth person right now under her administration. So, people are just concerned. We heard about the structure literacy. We heard about the data. We just want to know are you going stick it out and see it through. We want to see great strides with our education. We want the state to continue to do well.
Mariana Padilla: Faith, Thank you. I’ll just build off of the governor’s really great response. And I said in my introductory remarks, I have been here since the beginning of the administration. I’ve been consistently working on education, the things that we’re saying our plan, the strategies they’ve been consistently our strategies. We’ve been working on these throughout the administration.
So absolutely, I will be here till the end. I made that commitment to Governor, and to our state and to myself that this is an opportunity. Serving in this administration for all of us is is an opportunity to do all that we can for me, for the children and families of our state. And, and I will be here until the end and I’m excited to, to be doing that at the public education department.
Note: Padilla responds to another question from a journalist, then circles back to mine from earlier in response to her previous statement: “So, these gains are notable. But we are clear this is not enough and it’s not good enough. Our students deserve better, and they’re counting on us, to put our full effort in creating the best educational system that we can, I have a strong belief in the potential of our students and our educators, and I know what they’re capable of,” Padilla added.
And, I’ll go back to you, Faith. It’s not so much that it’s not enough, it’s that the work isn’t done, and the work continues. We haven’t stopped. There hasn’t been a hesitation or a slowdown on any of this effort. It has been consistent throughout the administration, and the leadership. And I’ll say for myself in my role in this, in this office, has been completely consistent and focused.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham: This poverty data is very telling about the conditions in which our families will be in, which means they’ll have more opportunities. And I don’t want that to sound like I’m pushing back on other reporters. We invited you guys because we appreciate your questions, and we think they are reflective of how parents and schools are feeling and students. So, we want to address those head on.
View Mariana Padilla’s biography, here.
Stay updated on the latest news updates with the KOAT app. You can download it here.
