SANTE FE, N.M. – The New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty is suing the state in an effort to provide “sufficient” and “equitable” funding for public schools, but others are already pointing out that money isn’t the answer to poor student performance.

The New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty filed a lawsuit on behalf of parents and students in the Albuquerque and Gallop-McKinley school districts last week alleging the state isn’t complying with the New Mexico Constitution, which tasks the state with providing an equitable and sufficient education for all students, the Associated Press reports.

“Public education in New Mexico is in crisis,” the news service quoted from the lawsuit. “New Mexico’s students rank at the very bottom in the country in educational achievement.”

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The lawsuit argues the problem is the amount of money New Mexico spends on public education, and how the state’s education funding system allocates money for each student, particularly students with disabilities.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, has pushed to increase spending on education since she was elected in 2011, most recently for additional funding for programs outside the school funding formula that are under her control, the news service reports.

“The lawsuit said that ‘below the line funding’ violates the constitution’s mandate for equitable school financing,” the AP reports.

But the Albuquerque Journal’s editorial board is taking issue with the fundamental arguments of the lawsuit, and explained to readers why the lawsuit’s focus on funding won’t solve the state’s academic problems.

“New Mexico is already spending more on K-12 education than its previous high of $2.49 billion in 2008, according to the Legislative Finance Committee. Per-pupil spending varies depending on the source: the National Education Association, a teachers union, says New Mexico ranks 25th in the nation with $10,203 per student. The U.S. Census Bureau put New Mexico in 37th place with $9,070 per student. And the LFC says New Mexico will spend $7,272 per student this year.

“Yet a constant is the state’s bottom-level achievement score status. New Mexico is consistently near the back of the pack on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, taken by a sample of students in all 50 states.

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“Unfortunately, instead of demanding student-centric results, a lawsuit filed by the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty is demanding more of the same at a higher cost. It decries targeted spending while claiming the state isn’t adequately funding schools and doesn’t direct enough money to ‘at-risk’ students – low-income students and those learning English.

“How about the statistics that show that under the status quo, the majority of New Mexico students are at risk of never getting out of high school or of getting a single college credit?” the news site questioned.

According to the Journal, 30,000 New Mexico students took a total of 62,000 remedial courses at the state’s colleges and universities, which cost an estimated $22 million. Research shows that of those who took only one remedial course, only 17 percent graduated college in six years. Of those who took two courses, only 5 percent earned a college degree, the Journal reports.

Addressing that reality with education reforms suggested by the Legislative Finance Committee would do a lot more for improving education in the Land of Enchantment than suing the state for “equitable” funding, the Journal opined.

“Rather than throw good money after bad, the LFC report recommends SBA scores be used to ‘better advise college-bound students, particularly regarding senior year course-selection and purposeful dual-credit enrollment.’

The high school graduation requirements should be aligned with college admissions criteria. That high school math requirements should be made more rigorous. And the high school senior year should be used to prepare for college rather than as a year to take a light course load, the Journal’s editorial board wrote.

“Those changes, with clearly aligned academic standards and targeted reforms, promise to make the money New Mexico already spends on education actually count for students and taxpayers,” the editorial said.