Group challenges gender policies in New Mexico schools

By Esther Wickham
The Center Square

As New Mexico students continue to rank among the lowest in the nation in academic proficiency, some parents are questioning why gender ideology has become a focus in K-12 schools.

Independent Women, a nonprofit, has launched a campaign demanding transparency and accountability from state education leaders.

The organization recently aired a statewide, video advertisement titled “New Mexico Women: What’s Happening in Our Communities?” alongside a petition that group organizers say has gathered thousands of signatures from state residents.

The goal for the organization is to bridge the gap between the state’s failing education system and policy priorities and values of New Mexicans.

“In New Mexico, students who can’t read at grade level are being passed onto the next grade anyway, chronic absenteeism is being ignored, poorly behaved students are allowed to disrupt classroom learning without consequence, and parents are being shut out of major decisions about their own children,” Neeraja Deshpande, policy analyst at Independent Women, said.

Since New Mexico is a transgender sanctuary state, in 2023, Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed House Bill 7, the Reproductive and Gender-Affirming Health Care Act, which protects access to reproductive and gender-affirming health care.

The Center Square reached out to the New Mexico Governor’s Office multiple times for comment but did not receive a response.

According to Independent Women polling, the public has very little awareness that HB 7 is even in place, with only 15% of New Mexicans saying they are very familiar with the law and 54% having never heard of it.

Erica Ramirez, an Independent Women’s Network member and leader of the New Mexico Voices Las Cruces chapter, said schools are socially transitioning students as young as 5 years old without notifying families.

“In New Mexico, you cannot consume alcohol until you are 21. You cannot have a permanent driver’s license until you are 21. You can’t even get a tattoo until you are 18 without parental consent, but you can (socially) transition a 5-year-old … It just does not make sense,” Ramirez told The Center Square.

Ramirez highlighted that the school districts need to be held accountable and transparent with parents about what is going on in the classroom.

“It is disturbing that there has been no parental transparency. There is no accountability because a lot of New Mexicans are not well-informed about what is going on in schools,” Ramirez told The Center Square. “We are demanding that parents know exactly what curriculum, what is being taught and what is being explained or asked of their children in school.”

At the same time, students in New Mexico continue to rank near the bottom nationally in reading and math.

The state’s K-12 education sector received $4.76 billion in the fiscal year 2025 budget. That represents 47% of the total state budget and an increase of $1.3 billion in education funding compared to recent years. According to education spending data, K-12 education spending in New Mexico is equivalent to about 4.17% of taxpayer income.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, whose scores are measured on a scale of 0 to 500, shows in New Mexico that in fourth-grade math, students scored an average of 224 in 2024, compared with the national average of 237. Students who performed at or above the NAEP Proficient level was 23% in 2024.

Eighth-grade students in New Mexico scored an average of 256 in math, compared with a national average of 272. And 14% of students reached the proficient level or higher.

Reading scores also remained below national averages.

Fourth-grade students in New Mexico scored an average of 201, compared with 214 nationally, while 20% of students performed at or above the proficient level. In eighth-grade reading, students scored an average of 245, compared with the national average of 257, and 19% reached proficiency in 2024.

“School should be a neutral ground where we just have to be totally committed. The objective should be scholastic development in every student in the state of New Mexico and the whole country,” Ramirez said.

The New Mexico Public Education Department, school district officials and multiple LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations did not respond to The Center Square’s requests for comment.

Elsewhere in the Southwest, an Arizona congressman and the state schools superintendent are supporting a federal bill that would ban teaching gender ideology in public elementary and middle schools, as reported Tuesday by The Center Square.