ALBUQUERQUE, NM — In the northwest corner of New Mexico near a Native American reservation, a veteran educator, who has spent over two decades watching her state’s education system unravel from the inside.
Today, Independent Women’s grassroots storytelling and investigative journalism arm, Independent Women’s Features, released a bombshell exclusive documentary exposing what one veteran educator calls a “full-scale collapse” inside New Mexico’s public school system.
In “The Hidden Crisis in New Mexico’s Classrooms,” Paula Edwards*—*a pseudonym used to protect the subject’s identity—deliveres a haunting firsthand account of a system she says is failing students at every level.
“If we don’t have a literate society, we really don’t have a free society,” Edwards said in an exclusive interview with IW Features. “We’ve known that for 200 years as Americans. And of course, living in New Mexico—being the very, very bottom of the barrel in education—we don’t have a literate society in our state.”
Watch the full documentary here.
“New Mexico’s kids are being failed, but too few people realize just how deep the problem runs,” said Andrea Mew, IW Features managing editor and documentary producer. “Students are pushed through without basic literacy, parents are cut out of decisions, and adults in power pretend the broken system is working. State leaders should be listening to educators like Edwards, and it’s telling that she must speak under a pseudonym just to keep her job and keep showing up for her students. When educators hesitate to speak the truth out of fear for repercussions, we know that something is deeply wrong. Edwards’s documentary gives a voice to the people fighting for children in a system that has totally lost its way.”
In Edwards’ view, New Mexico is not equipping children with foundational literacy skills necessary for independence and long-term success.
Having grown up in the same system she now works in, Edwards has watched New Mexico consistently rank at the bottom of national education metrics. The state’s chronic academic struggles are not new—but in her view, they are now accelerating.
CHRONIC ABSENTEEISM IN NEW MEXICO SCHOOLS
At the heart of the crisis is a catastrophic attendance breakdown. In New Mexico, Edwards explains that chronic absenteeism has soared and students can miss days—or even weeks—of school with little consequence. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the state lost track of more than 100,000 children entirely and many never returned to the system. Schools un-enroll students after extended absences and report them to the Children, Youth and Families Department, but Edwards says the state’s overwhelmed system rarely intervenes effectively.
Students in New Mexico are able to advance to the next grade even while their attendance records show they’ve missed the majority of the school year, and teachers are pressured to pass children who cannot meet grade-level benchmarks. Discipline policies reward disruption rather than address it. In some cases, extreme classroom behaviors result in incentives rather than consequences.
In the documentary, Edwards recounts instances of violent outbursts in elementary classrooms, students manipulating reward-based behavior systems to avoid work, and administrators discouraging meaningful accountability in favor of “positive behavior interventions” that, she argues, ignore persistent dysfunction.
Neeraja Deshpande, Independent Women policy analyst and senior IW Features contributor, said: “”The problems Edwards describes are not unique to New Mexico: they are unfortunately seen in schools around the country. Continuing to ignore them, whether in New Mexico or in any other state, will leave us a less literate and ultimately less free society, as Edwards so eloquently puts it.”
HARMFUL GENDER IDEOLOGY IN CLASSROOMS
While the academic consequences are evident, Edwards argues the crisis extends beyond academics. New Mexico’s status as a transgender sanctuary state has also introduced new complications for state educators who are hyper-focused on relieving massive educational achievement gaps.
Under district policies, teachers may be required to socially transition students—some as young as five—without parental knowledge or consent. District policies require teachers to socially transition students––even as young as five years old––through the use of preferred names and pronouns that educators are instructed not to disclose to parents.
New Mexico also offers gender-related medical interventions to minors. Edwards contrasts this with the strict consent that she would have to obtain in order to give a child aspirin. She questions how such profound decisions can occur without full parental involvement.
“DEI in education is not a good thing,” Edwards says, “It is bad that we are teaching pronouns over reading, writing, and math. Get your indoctrination out of the classroom and get us back to the basics.”
Edwards calls for restoring attendance enforcement, reinstating teacher certification exams, implementing science-of-reading and math instruction, and removing ideological mandates from classrooms.
GIVE TEACHERS A BREAK
Despite her frustrations, Edwards has not given up on New Mexico’s students. She believes the state can still reverse course if it makes very focused reforms.
Independent Women has championed policies that prioritize parental rights, academic excellence, and ultimately, policies that uplift teachers and empower students. “The Hidden Crisis in New Mexico’s Classrooms” shines a national spotlight on a state at a crossroads—where literacy, liberty, and the future of thousands of children hang in the balance.
In an effort to foster solutions to restore order in America’s classrooms, Independent Women released an education report last year, titled “Give Teachers A Break: Cutting Red Tape to Unleash the Potential of America’s Great Teachers.” The report exposes the reality of victims in the classroom and outlines common-sense practices to enable students to learn and teachers to thrive by cutting the red tape and regulations that get in the way of America’s great teachers who are just trying to do their jobs but end up entangled in a bureaucratic system.
The report discusses:
- Why the nation is losing its most effective teachers;
- How misguided policies—not educators—are sabotaging student success; and
- Practical, common-sense reforms to restore order, trust, and excellence in our classrooms.
READ MORE FROM INDEPENDENT WOMEN’S FEATURES: THE HIDDEN CRISIS IN NEW MEXICO’S CLASSROOMS
Direct media inquiries and booking requests to [email protected].
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