Governor Martinez believes every child can learn and has focused on reforming education to help improve student achievement. New Mexico is spending a larger percentage of the state budget on public education in New Mexico than ever before, with requirements that more funding be used directly in the classroom, not on bureaucracy. Pre-K spending has been more than doubled under Governor Martinez.
High school graduation rates have increased to an all-time high of 73.9% in K-12 public schools, with graduation rates for Hispanic and low-income students growing at a faster rate than the rest of the state. This represents a 10 percentage point increase in graduation rates since Susana Martinez took office as Governor and came even as the state raised standards and graduation requirements.
Student performance on standardized tests have also improved at an “unprecedented” rate with more New Mexico students than ever before reaching proficiency in reading and math.
New Mexico’s student progress is unprecedented in the state’s history: 11,000 more students are doing math on grade level and 13,000 more students are reading on grade-level since 2015 – with Native American students improving their reading results more than any other group of students – by 8.2 percentage points.
