New Mexico & Education:
Room for Improvement

According to a recent article published by Forbes, New Mexico has dropped to 51st place among U.S. states for the quality of public education. Author Renee Morad summarized major contributors as being attributed to “…a weak labor supply and lousy current economic climate… while the state also fares poorly on quality of life metrics, a product of comparatively low school test scores and high crime.” 

In comparison, Massachusetts is ranked first in the same article. Morad attributes this state’s success to, “…a host of top-notch universities dumping thousands of highly-educated graduates into its labor supply each year.” Start-up companies initiated by these grads are also attracting the third most venture capitalists in the nation. While, the state’s quality of life is ranked fourth in the nation, attributing this accolade to factors such as “bountiful arts, recreation opportunities, a healthy populous and plethora of top-rated colleges.”  

Based on these factors, and many social and economic polarities exacerbated by at-home and distance learning experienced during the Covid-19 Pandemic, we at Hannah’s Bananas have been working hard to develop Visual Arts lesson plans paired with self-contained supply boxes in the form of Hannah’s Bananas Boxes. These kits take a deep dive into content that is aligned with our New Mexico Common Core Visual Arts Standards and Massachusetts’ Visual Arts for 4th and 5th grade learners. Young learners can engage with grade-level learning targets at home, as self-paced learning unites within traditional classroom setting, or work in a hybrid Zoom environment for distance learning. 

As a professional graphic designer and visual arts educator, I hunkered down with my colleagues at the beginning of the pandemic to redesign what it meant to learn in these times. I gathered supplies and designed age-appropriate goal setting calendars to support 4th and 5th grade students in continuing to learn away from our classroom and touched base with my students multiple times per day over Zoom. Like many educators, we also became the hosts of our classroom’s YouTube channel, director of step-by-step tutorials on arts and craft projects, and savvy graders of various photos of student work uploaded by parents and family to our class’ website, a simplified version of the university platform, Canvas. I also ran monthly, sometimes weekly, drop-offs of Student Kits to their doorsteps with supplies and learning materials needed for the upcoming units.

But, not every child benefitted in the same way from a professional partnership with their school, teachers, and community. Many of my past students did not have reliable running water, let alone internet access, and faced increasing stressors as the pandemic continued.  Prior to the Pandemic, in a 2018 lawsuit, Yazzie-Martinez v. State of New Mexico Public Education Department, presided over by Judge Sarah Singleton, found that on the grounds that “…the state legislature failed to provide sufficient and uniform system of education to all New Mexican children, as guaranteed by the education clause of the New Mexico State constitution,” the state had failed. The lawsuit specifically named marginalized groups within education, such as low-income students, Native American students, English Language Learners (ELL), and students with disabilities were not provided with the programs and services needed for these groups to learn and thrive.    

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Sources
1. Morad, Renee. “States with The Best Public School Systems.” Accessed November 14, 2022.
https://www3.forbes.com/business/states-with-the-best-public-school-systems-ifs-vue-wnb/?utm_campaign=States-With-The-Best-Public-School&utm_source=Adwords&utm_medium=ad209769d0us3&lcid=ad209769d0us3&gclid=CjwKCAiA68ebBhB-EiwALVC-NhedL7_u6MFfBYNqAVuj-1o8dp4VAEXZAcmbip8Js6yKU4seyr8y5hoCaNQQAvD_BwE
2. Candelaria, Esteban. “NM’s 2022 National Test Scores Are Not Acceptable.” October 24, 2022. 10:38PM. https://www.abqjournal.com/2542915/nms-national-test-scores-not-acceptable.html
3. New Mexico Center on Law & Poverty. “Yazzie/Martinez v. State of New Mexico Decision.”
http://nmpovertylaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Graphic-Yazzie-Martinez-Decision.pdfu