Far-left Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s New Mexico Public Education Department’s (PED) proposed “180-day rule” has been officially struck down. Fifth Judicial District Judge Dustin Hunter ruled on Monday that the department’s mandate for all public school districts and charter schools to implement a 180-day instructional calendar “does not align with the Legislature’s clear intention.”
“The PED lacks the authority to implement a rule mandating a minimum number of instructional days for public school districts and charter schools,” Hunter stated in his decision.
The ruling comes after over a year of opposition from school administrators, educators, and lawmakers who challenged the agency’s authority to impose such a requirement.
The controversy began in May 2024, when a coalition of New Mexico school superintendents filed a lawsuit against NMPED, arguing that the mandate constituted “executive overreach.” The lawsuit, backed by over 50 school districts, claimed that enforcing a 180-day school calendar would eliminate four-day school weeks, which are widely used in rural communities.
Stan Rounds, executive director of the New Mexico School Superintendents Association, previously warned that under the new rule, “If you do a four-day week under the new rule, you essentially will have to go to school about 49 of those 52 weeks.”
Superintendent Johnna Bruhn of Mosquero Municipal Schools voiced concerns about the logistical and financial burdens the rule would impose. “The issue is, it’s going to be an increase in travel time and an increase in costs and an increase in the burden on the students and the staff,” Bruhn explained.
Parents and community members also objected to the change. Ronald Dixon, a grandparent of students in Grady, opposed the extended schedule, saying, “I just totally object to it because they don’t give the kids an opportunity to rest, as well as the teachers, and give everybody a break.”
Despite widespread opposition, NMPED defended the 180-day mandate, citing improved student performance in districts that voluntarily adopted extended calendars. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham also backed the policy, arguing that increasing instructional days would help boost academic outcomes across the state.
However, the court ultimately rejected the department’s arguments, ruling that the mandate conflicted with a state law passed in 2023, which sets instructional requirements at 1,140 hours per year but does not specify a required number of school days.
In his ruling, Judge Hunter emphasized that the Legislature, not the Public Education Department, holds the power to set educational policies. He also pointed to the repeal of a 2009 law that originally established a 180-day requirement, noting that lawmakers had intentionally chosen not to reinstate such a mandate.
Furthermore, the judge highlighted that PED delayed implementing the rule for over a decade, suggesting that even the department had doubts about its own authority. This delay was acknowledged in a December communication to the Legislative Finance Committee.
As a result, the court issued a preliminary injunction, preventing the enforcement of the 180-day requirement and directing NMPED to approve school budgets that comply with existing legal standards.
The court has given both parties ten days to submit additional findings supporting the decision. A scheduling discussion has also been set for Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. to address the case’s next steps.
With the ruling now in place, New Mexico school districts can continue operating under their current calendars without being forced to adopt a longer school year.
MLG’s been schooled.
Not for long…her ego has been bruised, she will retaliate in some other way, maybe authorizing more abortions centers…
Trump is going to erase the Department Of Education. Finally. The “voters”, LOL…in New Mexico will now get a true understanding of just how incompetent the state government runs things. No more hiding behind Republicans bad. I am HERE for the show.
Sad… for once I agree with what MLG wants. We’re last in education for a reason… and kids being in school just 4 days a week is probably a part of that.
These small rural districts that have been using the 4 day week actually have far better test scores than APS, Santa Fe, and other big districts. They are doing more with less time. The rest of the state should model their sucess.
Agreed! I attended a 4 day a week school district at Grady. For 4 years we were second in the state in academics behind Los Alamos. Our valedictorian played basketball at Yale while studying law. Our salutatorian went on to work in the research and development at Frito Lay. Another in our class of 17 worked at Los Alamos National Laboratories. I was in the bottom 50% of our class…12th out of 17….and I had a 3.5 GPA went on to get my Masters Degree and have been teaching an coaching for 32 years. The average 4 day schools far outperform the 5 day school across the board….academics, extra curricular, discipline, etc. If a school district wants to go extra days then they can. But to force successful districts to change and model the failure of larger districts is insane!
Whether it’s 4 days or 5 days, ALL schools still meet the 1140 Mandatory Hours in school, so how will a shorter day but more days make a difference?
Has nothing to do with a 4 day school week. How is home schoolers can teach in less time than that and accomplish so much more? It has more to do with quality of the teachers, student/teachers ratio, poverty, non-english speakers slowing instruction down, uninvolved parents, learning disabilities. I can go on.
How is it that we attended school for the same amount of time and we were always in the top five countries of the world in best educated. I graduated almost 50 years ago.
What has happened to allow our education’s standards to drop down from the top 5 into the 20s? Could it be that the Federal government became a megalopolis department and has allowed this with programs like No Child Left Behind?
Too many parents believe the government knows best. Here we are allowing the we know it best government and we have children graduating school with a basic 5th grade education, if that. We have to many children who do not move on to higher learning institutions, the military and just getting a job until they know what they want and need. Is it the system that failed them to give them the education to courageously move on and do better? We as grandparents and parents need to really roll up our shirt sleeves and realign our New Mexico Department of Education from school boards up. There is more power at the school board level than we know and understand.
Adding more days will not cure the incompetence in education, it will add more corruption into our Department of Education. This state spends $10,469 per child and we are ranked 50th, where Utah spends $7,900 per child and are ranked second in education in the country. New Mexico is a poor state and adding more days means adding more taxes. The party in charge love their taxes.
I don’t believe adding days or dollars will cure the ill in our system. Parents getting involved, as they did with this mandate from MLG, will change the course and boost our children into a better education system.
Thank you.
New Mexico is not a poor state. The problem is we have a poor state due to the far left Democrats who spend tax payers money on stuff that’s not important. And things will change if you vote out those communist and MLG‘s comrades out of office. And get a decent school education board that’s going to concentrate on giving our children a proper education, not trying to brainwash them into believing all the other crap ie: D.E.I. Get back to regular schooling, reading, writing, arithmetic, history, economics, etc., etc.
So… because you agree with what she wants, she should be able to overstep her authority????
That makes me sick.
We are headed in the right direction. But it’s gonna get bumpy at times. Be patient 🙂🇺🇸👍
I do not know if the changes would have worked the good thing is the legislature change it and they have to change it back. My question is, what is being done to move NM from the worst schools in the nation to at least the 2nd worst. Yes 25th or so would be a lot better but to be staying at the worst, we can do better and changing the amount of time students sit in a school seat alone does not fix the problem. One step could be stop the woke indoctrination, focus on Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic. I would rather have the kids to know those 3 things and not know the 32 fricken genders that do not exist.
Pretty dang sad when no one can agree on how much teaching is the right amount of teaching over a certain specific amount of time.
Why not ask the damn kids? Why not ask the parents or caregivers?
Here’s a simple formula to achieve a decision… #1. 40% of the solution should be with the kids decision.
#2. 35% of the solution should rest with the parent and or caregiver of the kids, and
#3. 25% of the solution should be with the voter.
Voters pay for schools and education, they demand a say in how the money is spent… not the damn Gooberment.
Kids are the most impacted, let their collective voice be heard… Do they want a Christmas Vacation? Do they want Spring Break? Do they want a summer Vacation? Do they agree 12 years is too long or not long enough? Will 11 or 10 years do the same result? Do they agree that a student over age 18 should still be in school, they are adults… if they want to go to school, starting at age 16-19, go to a University…
Do Parents want their kids home for the summer? Do they want them home for Christmas and a spring break? Do they want adults age 19 and over still marking the primary school system or should they be booted into adulthood and into collage?
Does the taxpayer want kids to go year round adding up increased transportation and educational costs? Will 6 month’s per year achieve the same results over 10-12 years of public education achieve the same results at 12?
Id say stop being fu**ing ignorant about educating kids and start putting some common sense into it… but we are talking about an area that the DNC of NM has 101% control over…
Forget all this complexity. Make it really simple: what are the successful, higher ranked schools and districts doing? Then do that.
My opinion is that kids should go to school year-round. Maybe they might learn something then, and improve the state’s ranking for education. Of course, public schools are the worst; home-schooling and charter schools is the answer to better education.
I wonder if something like… discipline… in the classroom would be helpful?
It’s hard to get anything done with children running the classrooms.