Commentary: New Mexico’s children continue to be the No. 1 priority in Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s Budget for next year. NEA-New Mexico welcomes this prioritization, but we must ask: is it enough to meet the needs of today’s youngest children and our students, grades K to 12?
The Governor’s budget makes “record investments in early childhood education, continuing significant investments in K-12, and the Opportunity Scholarship, which will provide tuition- and fee-free higher education at 4-year and 2-year schools for tens of thousands of New Mexico residents.” Are these proposals enough to meet the needs of today’s youngest children and our students, grades K to 12?
The Governor proposes a four percent raise for teachers and other educators, while the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) offers only a three percent raise. Thankfully House Speaker Egolf supports the ten percent raise needed to end the crisis our students face because of the teacher shortage. Anything less than a second year of six percent raises sends the signal we are back to business as usual, and that hurts our students. It will exacerbate the teacher shortage crisis.
Fortunately, the Legislative Education Study Committee (LESC): the legislators who study education and understand better what our students need. That committee recommended a six percent salary increase as part of a much larger increase in funds for public schools in its own budget proposal. The LESC proposes a hike of $343 million, compared to the LFC’s $210.5 million and the governor’s $215.9 million.
Rep. Andrés Romero, House Education Committee chair said he was disappointed with the budgets from both the governor and the LFC — in particular the amount proposed for at-risk students and teacher recruitment and retention programs. “There was a lot of good stuff we worked on that’s not in there,” Romero said. “I feel like we have been left in the lurch,” added Rep. Christine Trujillo, chairwoman of the LESC.
Helping reduce the insurance burden on school employees (HB 84) will help with our staff shortage crisis. Meaningful mentorships for new teachers, provided by experienced, high quality teachers is also critical (HB 62). Teachers with little preparation and little support leave education at rates two to three times faster than others.
New Mexicans understand that out-of-school factors, like poverty, are the biggest problem facing success in our schools, and the public overwhelmingly supports raises for educators and more school funding overall. It’s time New Mexico created budgets that provide our students what they need to succeed (not to mention our New Mexico Constitution requires the schools be sufficiently funded).
Senate Majority Whip Mimi Stewart, notes “We’ve done nothing but underfund for years.” Sen. Bill Soules, Senate Education Committee Chair, expressed similar frustration. “People need to realize we didn’t get to the bottom in one year. This is years and years of digging ourselves into a hole,” he said.
There are many important bills this session to help us dig our students out of our statewide hole. Large raises and benefit increases will help attract more New Mexicans into the professions of public education (that battle is played out in the finance committees). Our NEA-New Mexico Facebook page includes updates on education bills. We encourage the public to “like” our page to keep tuned in.
Please make your voice heard in Santa Fe! Our state and must adequately fund public schools as our Constitution and our state’s moral compass demands they do. Call Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (505) 476-2200, or use her input form: https://www.governor.state.nm.us/contact-the-governor/ .
Do not forget Representative Patricia Lundstrom, Chair of House Appropriations and Finance: (505) 986-4316 Patricia.lundstrom@nmlegis.gov
Ask that they support the LESC budget proposals, and HB 84 to solve the teacher shortage crisis.