Senator Eric Lucero (R-St. Michael) today responded to flatlined student test scores released recently. Results show just 50% of students can read and 45% are proficient in math across the state. That’s a drop of about 10% in each area since 2019, when scores were already trending downward.    

“Expensive and excessive Democrat mandates combined with efforts to impose controversial political agendas including gender confusion and CRT into our classrooms are having catastrophic impacts on students,” Senator Lucero said. “As a member of the Senate Education Finance Committee, I’m very alarmed at the sharp decline in academic foundations such as reading and math. The sharp declines in academic achievement have occurred despite Democrat broken promises. Our public schools should not be used for social experiments or pushing political agendas but instead we must return to a focus on high standards and the basics including reading, writing, math, and science.”

During the 2023 session, Senate Republicans proposed the Students’ First plan which funded students without mandates and put $100 million towards literacy training for teachers and students to get them back on track.Schools sounded the alarm that the mandates in the Democrats’ education bills along with their one-party control agenda would leave schools underfunded. One suburban superintendent told his school board, “This is potentially one of the most damaging sessions I’ve seen since I’ve been a superintendent.”