Public Education Secretary Arsenio Romero addresses a crowd Tuesday to celebrate Disability Pride Month. “We’ve taken some great strides over the last few months, and we’re not close to being done,” he said. Lawmakers and education officials celebrated the contributions of people with disabilities to New Mexico’s education system.
Public Education Secretary Arsenio Romero addresses a crowd Tuesday to celebrate Disability Pride Month. “We’ve taken some great strides over the last few months, and we’re not close to being done,” he said. Lawmakers and education officials celebrated the contributions of people with disabilities to New Mexico’s education system.
State officials Tuesday hung a third flag on the central dais at Public Education Department headquarters.
Lt. Gov. Howie Morales; state Sen. Harold Pope, D-Albuquerque; and Rep. Tara Lujan, D-Santa Fe, raised the Disability Pride Flag — a gray banner, diagonally striped with green, blue, white, yellow and red — alongside the U.S. and New Mexico flags in recognition of the New Mexico’s Public Education Department’s first official celebration of July as Disability Pride Month.
The past year has seen significant changes in the state’s special education policies.
In May 2023, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham established by executive order the state’s Office of Special Education, intended to serve as a one-stop shop for students and families to access disability services.
“We’ve taken some great strides over the last few months, and we’re not close to being done,” Public Education Department Secretary Arsenio Romero said at Tuesday’s event.
There are about 50,000 students with disabilities across the state — and they’re one of the groups identified in the 2018 Yazzie/Martinez decision, in which a state District Court judge ruled New Mexico had failed to provide them with an adequate education.
A report presented to the state’s Legislative Finance Committee last week found proficiency rates for student groups identified in Yazzie/Martinez remain far behind statewide averages, even though state education spending has increased by $1.6 billion since 2019.
That achievement gap certainly still exists for students with disabilities. According to the latest state proficiency data, just 8% of students with disabilities are proficient in math, compared to an overall proficiency rate of 24%.
The gap is even wider in English language arts: 12% of students with disabilities are proficient in reading, compared to the statewide average of 38%.
During Tuesday’s ceremony, lawmakers and education officials celebrated the contributions of people with disabilities to New Mexico’s education system and promised to continue the work to improve access to disability support services for the state’s students.
“Our future is very bright,” said Greg Trapp, executive director for the New Mexico Commission for the Blind. “I know that working together — all of us working together — we can truly change what it means to be an individual with a disability in New Mexico.”
Morales, a former special education teacher, read a proclamation from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham officially recognizing July as Disability Pride Month.
For many in attendance — including Romero and Lujan, both of whom have children with autism — Tuesday’s celebration was about both policy and personal experience.
“The person I owe my greatest education in special education to is my son, who is on the spectrum and who, through his journey, has made me the advocate, the parent and the legislative policymaker that I am today,” Lujan said.
She added: “It is crucial for us to understand the rights of all of our individuals with exceptionalities because, when we do that, ... we’re actually doing the work we set out to do as policymakers.”
