Apr. 28—New Mexico’s House Republican Caucus has moved to join a lawsuit against the state Public Education Department to halt a policy requiring 180 instructional days at districts and schools across the state starting during the 2024-25 school year.

In a letter signed by all 25 Republicans in the state’s House of Representatives, lawmakers Saturday called the policy, “an unworkable rule that will negatively impact most school districts statewide.”

“All of the undersigned House Republican Caucus members would like to join in the lawsuit as Plaintiffs and support this effort in any way we can,” the letter said.

Filed earlier this month in Curry County’s 9th Judicial District Court, the lawsuit currently lists the the New Mexico School Superintendents Association and more than 50 individual superintendents — including Santa Fe Public Schools superintendent Hilario “Larry” Chavez — as plaintiffs.

After all five of the 9th Judicial District’s judges recused themselves from the case, the state Supreme Court designated Roswell-based 5th Judicial District Court Judge Dustin K. Hunter to preside over the case, court documents show.

The lawsuit frames the 180-day rule as an overreach of executive power and a budgetary stumbling block for districts across the state while seeking to halt the rule’s implementation, said Stan Rounds, executive director of the New Mexico Coalition of Educational Leaders, which includes the superintendents association, in a previous interview with The New Mexican.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham emphatically countered that interpretation of the rule, arguing in a statement the lawsuit is “another pathetic attempt” for New Mexico’s low-performing schools to sidestep accountability.

In the letter announcing their intent to join the lawsuit, House Republicans asserted the 180-day rule will result in “an exodus of qualified school staff” and budgetary shortfalls for many districts, which did not receive additional funding to account for the extra staff time, transportation costs, meals and more required for more school days.

The rule is forcing financial tradeoffs that “are not the decisions legislators envisioned districts would have to make when the 2024 legislative session concluded.”

House Republicans also called on their Democratic colleagues to join the lawsuit as plaintiffs.

Several lawmakers have spoken out against the 180-day rule since it was announced last year, including Democrats and the majority-Democratic Legislative Education Study Committee. In large part, they argued the rule is inconsistent with a bill signed into law in 2023 implementing new minimum instructional hour requirements.

That issue, the letter stated, should compel Democrats to join the lawsuit.

“While this is clearly an important issue for school districts statewide, it is also one of legislative intent that should be important to all of our state legislators,” it said.