Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham On Education, Pop-Up Park In The International District, The Line

This week on New Mexico in Focus, senior producer Matt Grubs sits down for an in-depth conversation with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham about her ambitions goal of raising New Mexico’s public education system to be the best in the country. Less than a month after firing her education secretary, the governor picked Ryan Stewart to lead the Public Education Department.   NMiF goes to Albuquerque’s International District to see how neighbors working with the Nature Conservancy and Rocky Mountain Youth Corps have transformed a vacant dirt lot into a pop-up public park. Among the goals for the project are to build community and help add greenery to one of the hottest parts of New Mexico’s biggest city.   Gene Grant and The Line opinion panelists debate the qualifications of Ryan Stewart as secretary-designate of New Mexico’s Public Education Department. Gov. Lujan Grisham introduced Stewart on the first day of the new school year for much of the state. The Line also looks at the possibility of reshaping New Mexico’s Public Regulation Commission, currently an elected body that regulates utilities, telecommunications, and motor carrier industries. In The Line’s final topic, the panel will discuss the state’s denial of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requests for New Mexico workforce records.