NM Public Education Department Proselytizing

The New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED) is actively engaged in supporting and encouraging sectarian activities in the public schools of New Mexico. The latest exposed action by Secretary of NMPED Veronica Garcia, an appointee of Governor William Richardson, can be found at www.nmta.nesinc.com. You will see a popular style of the modified Zia Pueblo Sun symbol that is cropping up in more government offices as the 'banner' of the religious in those offices.

Note that this particular symbol has a halo, three fingers in each cardinal direction instead of the normal four fingers, and four little peaks between each of the three. There is also a 'TM' that normally means the symbol has been trademarked. In this case the NMPED Custodian of Records denied any knowledge of the 'TM' and my search of federal records revealed nothing. The NM Secretary of State reported that there is no record of this 'TM' symbol. At the bottom edge of the form you can read, "....the New Mexico Teacher Assessments logo are trademarks....of the State of New Mexico Public Education Department and Pearson, Inc...."

The interesting thing is the NMPED symbol on all the New Mexico Teacher Assessments forms have this symbol in one of two colors. This symbol came from a cleaver art works somewhere that assists government offices in New Mexico in hiding the religious message. Here the message represents the Gospel of John 3:16, which is about the begotten son and everlasting life.

The NMPED also put a huge Latin cross made from the Zia Sun symbol on the front cover of every New Mexico Standards Based Assessment test booklets that students used.