Across the country, charter schools have quietly emerged as a proven public-education model, delivering strong academic outcomes while operating with greater accountability and fewer resources. They represent a public-education model built on the premise that when granted flexibility and held responsible for results, students benefit and steadily rank at the top of educational outcomes. In regions like the Permian Basin—where workforce demand is growing faster than educational capacity—communities need flexible, accountable education models that align learning with real-world outcomes. Hobbs is not lacking in committed educators or families invested in public education; it is facing a shortage of options that meet diverse learning needs while preparing students for modern careers. Charter schools are bringing a fresh perspective to education that’s greatly needed and changing how modern education looks.

The top two public high schools in the nation are charter schools, according to the U.S. News & World Report 2025-2026 rankings. Twenty-four of the top one-hundred schools of all levels in the U.S. are charter schools. These statistics are startling given that charter schools serve only 7.6% of students in public schools, according to USA Facts, a nonpartisan nonprofit civic data-collection organization.

While serving similar demographics of low-income, English-language learners, and Special Education students, NM charters still outperform traditional district schools in reading, math, and science proficiency. New Mexico students in traditional public schools (TPS) received approximately $14,600 – $17,000 from the state per student in 2025 for grades K-12 with charter schools receiving only 70-90% of this public funding; these funds differ per school district throughout the state and fall far below the national average of $18,500 or more. Regardless of the difference in funding, New Mexico’s charter schools lead education with reading comprehension at 52% compared to 43% at TPS, math proficiency is 30% compared to 25% at TPS, and science is 44% compared to 35% at TPS. Considering a charter school on the New Mexico side of the Permian, students at Sidney Gutierrez Middle School in Roswell (authorized by the Roswell Independent School District) achieve proficiency in reading and math close to 70%, and these students are showing growth faster in both subjects than those in traditional public schools.

It’s not only the students and families of charter schools that are benefitting from this success but surrounding schools in the same school districts. It’s easy to understand this when the adage “Competition breeds excellence” is considered. Many students who graduate from charter high schools are the first in their families to receive a high school diploma, and whether they go onto higher education or enter the workforce immediately after high school, this new emphasis on success in education makes positive generational changes in their families.

Past studies in cities of different states across the nation demonstrate positive effects on test scores, attendance, and college readiness. With funding received from the Department of Education, the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice (REACH) conducted a study that found indirect positive effects on students attending nearby TPS, drawing conclusions with a 2-4% increase in high school graduation rates, a 6% increase in math scores, and a 3% increase in reading scores for students across all socioeconomic backgrounds; these results become apparent when charter students represent about 5% of the education market and continue to increase until that share reaches 15%. “By understanding how charter schools affect student outcomes, education leaders can better design policies to serve the needs of students,” REACH stated. The closer proximity a charter school has to a traditional public school, the greater positive impact the charter school has on the TPS.

As the Souderton Charter School Collaborative of Pennsylvania states, “The core of the charter school model is the belief that public schools should be held accountable for student learning. In exchange for this accountability, charter schools have the responsibility to innovate and share what works with the broader public school system so that all students benefit.” Charter school educators’ duty to share what works with their fellow public school educators means that all in local education benefit from the curriculum and practices proven to work.

Charter schools are not private schools and do not select children based on their performance. Every student enrolled in a charter school represents a family that believes in public education with choice, innovative education, and a student-centered mindset. They operate within an independent system with more control over their curriculum and resources and less money than traditional public schools and consistently outperform. In New Mexico, charter schools serve students in both urban and rural areas, including minority or underserved populations.

The structure of a charter school is not to completely wipe the educational slate but to provide them with an environment with more sovereignty on choosing programs that help students learn most effectively. The New England educator who established the original concept of charter schools, Ray Budde, believed that empowered teachers with additional freedoms can achieve a much higher rate of student success. His idea for groups of teachers establishing contracts, or “charters,” with their local school board is to develop ideas and approaches that would benefit all students’ opportunities to improve individual outcomes and success in literacy, education, job choice, financial freedom, and family success across the nation. Charter schools represent one approach to shaping that future—offering communities a means to strengthen public education through accountability, innovation, and collaboration.

As technology engineer and developer of the modern personal computer Alan Kay stated, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Charter schools’ growing track record suggests that when thoughtfully integrated into local education systems, they provide a proven path to course-correct outcomes for future generations while reinforcing the shared goals of academic outcomes, workforce readiness, long-term community resilience, and elevating public education performance across school systems while preserving access and equity.

Meghan Mooney is community relations coordinator for Mewbourne Oil Company.

What bothers Melissa Beery is that in all of the investigations, lawsuits and reporting on CYFD, nobody captures the day-to-day experience of children in state custody. Too many of these kids are shuffled from place to place – CYFD offices, shelters, the streets – without food, medicine or school. Or the notice of a single caring adult.

Beery is a peer support worker – someone who raised a child with mental or behavioral health issues or development delays and is trained and certified by the state to work with families in the case load of the state Children Youth and Families Department.

“We’ve walked the path,” Beery says. She’s employed by a CYFD contractor.

A recent report from the state Department of Justice may not describe day-to-day life, but the interviews with kids paint a tragic picture.

Jacob, age 12, had eight placements in his first two months in custody and more than 30 in less than six years. In congregate care and group homes, the sporadic meals were unhealthy, he received no therapy for his health issues, and nobody was taking him to school.

In one facility he was placed with teenagers who jumped him five times on his first day, sustaining a concussion; the program director didn’t intervene. Another facility was filthy and the staff abusive. He rotated through shelters in Taos, Roswell and Hobbs. At Albuquerque’s CYFD’s office, he slept in a storage closet; “meals” were goldfish crackers and bottled water, and the case worker sometimes told Jacob to find his own place to sleep and come back in the morning. The boy’s case worker at CYFD failed to check on him even monthly, the required minimum.

There are lots of Jacobs.

Beery has her own horror stories of kids with too many placements, bounced from CYFD offices around the state to shelters, where they’re not only unsafe but can just walk out.

“We play whack-a-mole with kids,” she says.

Nobody wants to talk about the kids who are older and harder to place. “Foster parents want kids 0 to 5,” she says. “Kids with behavioral health issues, nobody wants to take them. Residential treatment is almost impossible to find.”

AMIkids is a reputable national program, but New Mexico has just two facilities, in Farmington and Albuquerque, and they only take boys. “It’s hard to find therapy, hard to get an evaluation, hard to get medications.”

To Beery, one solution is helping families and keeping the kid at home. “My perspective is to keep families together. It also lines up with what the feds want to spend money on.”

“Too many times kids are taken for small things, like the house is too dirty and bug infested,” she says. Instead, the state should ask, what can we do for you? Solutions can be relatively simple. “One family had an autistic kid who wanders. Why not get a GPS tracker in his shoe? It’s better than taking him into state custody.”

An emphasis on removing kids doesn’t consider “the long-term consequences of losing the only family they’re connected to. Being untethered is a hard way to go through life.”

CYFD has a Family Services division that’s supposed to do everything Beery mentions. It’s as dysfunctional as the rest of the agency.

“It’s disheartening how bad it is,” she says.

I should mention here that Beery differs somewhat from reformers like Maralyn Beck, founder of the watchdog New Mexico Child First Network, who believes in foster care and whose organization provides support to foster parents. The two do agree on how poorly CYFD is living up to its responsibilities. Considering the time needed for drug and alcohol treatment (that may not succeed), I’d say we need an all-of-the-above approach.

When Beery first wrote to me three years ago, she wanted to see CYFD dismantled and replaced by new and responsive entities. Today she proposes a cultural transformation.

“A culture shift at a massive, entrenched agency like CYFD isn’t just about hiring a new cabinet secretary, it’s about a fundamental rewiring of how the department views its mission, its staff, and the families it serves,” she writes.

Whether we dismantle or transform CYFD, whatever happens is not just on the governor, it’s on all of us.

Sherry Robinson is a longtime New Mexico reporter and editor. She has worked in Grants, Gallup, the Albuquerque Journal, New Mexico Business Weekly and Albuquerque Tribune. She is the author of four books. Her columns won first place in 2024 from New Mexico Press Women.