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The latest rankings are out, and New Mexico鈥檚 public education system is last again, for the 10th year in a row. Other states are running a somewhat competitive race, from first place New Jersey to 49th place Alaska. Within this pack of 49, rankings shift from year to year. But while these states are within striking distance of one another, New Mexico is so far behind the pack that everyone else has lapped us. We鈥檙e the last place runner who hasn鈥檛 even reached the final lap while everyone else has already finished.

How does this happen? At the risk of mixing metaphors, one might approach the problem as a renovation challenge, rather than a race. Perhaps it is the very structure of our state鈥檚 educational system that has put us in peril. Contrasting New Mexico鈥檚 Public Education Department with other states鈥� departments of education, it is evident that New Mexico鈥檚 PED is in need of structural repair.

One key difference is that other states ensure that their education departments are led by qualified experts, people with ample years of experience in the field. By contrast, the PED鈥檚 leadership structure is comprised of secretaries and directors who often have no experience in running a school, let alone an entire state full of schools. To be fair, the department has occasionally recognized some of its faults. Ten years ago, it commissioned the Martin Consulting Group to conduct an efficiency evaluation. The 2016 report found that each school district was averaging about 15,000 hours of combined staff time every year just to meet the PED鈥檚 reporting requirements.

The report translated these hours into dollars, calculating how much this was costing the state in per-student funding. It found that New Mexico was vastly outspending other states at approximately $212 per student, whereas Nevada was spending only $70 (and is ranked 37th in the nation in overall educational quality). Administrative reporting burden, the consultants found, was problematically interfering with the time schools needed to attend to their educational responsibilities. Ten years after the report鈥檚 conclusions, little has improved. Perhaps the will is there, but the way is not.

New Mexico鈥檚 educational system suffers from a structural problem. Much like a building in need of renovation, it takes more than a fresh coat of paint to fix the issue. It requires attention to the foundation and beams, and these should be constructed of stable, quality materials. Referencing the aforementioned states, New Jersey鈥檚 stability comes from a state board of education, and Nevada鈥檚 department of education is led by a superintendent of public instruction. New Mexico has neither of these. A state board is a publicly elected body. A state superintendent is hired by a state board that vets each candidate to select the most qualified person to lead the state鈥檚 educational system. New Mexico abolished its state board of education more than 20 years ago, at which time it also replaced the state superintendent with a politically appointed secretary of education.

So long as structural improvement is neglected, material failure or collapse is imminent. To compete with other states, New Mexico needs to address its structural faults. A knowledgeable and experienced public education department is critical to any meaningful improvement effort. A department that provides expert technical assistance and support is very different from a department that is oblivious to the 15,000 hours of interference it creates. But until our state acknowledges the need to reform its state educational structure, New Mexico is doomed to repeat its failures well into the next 10 years and beyond.

Dr. Robert Hunter is the CEO of Middle College High School, located in Gallup.