Education secretary: New Mexico needed more outdoor classes

By CEDAR ATTANASIO
Associated Press / Report for America

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s outgoing education secretary says more schools should have used outdoor classrooms last year to increase in-person learning. Ryan Stewart, ending his two years as education secretary this week, says outdoor classrooms could make kids safer this year and reduce the time they need to wear masks. He says the Public Education Department tried to fund school districts to build outdoor classrooms last year, but none signed up for the pilot program. Stewart leaves his successor, a former Los Alamos superintendent, with a more computer literate teacher workforce, and an unresolved lawsuit brought by underserved Native American and Hispanic children.