Public Education Secretary Designate Kurt Steinhaus
NMPED News:
SANTA FE — The New Mexico Public Education Department (PED) is requesting a $3.85 billion budget for public schools in the next fiscal year to address the educator workforce crisis, lost learning time and student behavioral health.
Those and other critically needed programs are included in the request, which is $441.8 million (13 percent) higher than what the Legislature appropriated for the current fiscal year.
Public Education Secretary (Designate) Dr. Kurt Steinhaus submitted the request Tuesday to the Department of Finance and Administration and presented it Friday to the Legislative Finance Committee.
“This budget request reaffirms New Mexico’s belief in and support for educators, students, families and their communities,” Dr. Steinhaus said. “We know our strength lies in our educator workforce, our parent partners and our children, who are hungry for success. The resources we’re requesting will attract new and retain veteran teachers and keep them engaged with our kids as much as possible. They’ll provide the behavioral health supports children need to navigate growing up amid a pandemic.”
New Mexico’s chronic teacher shortage nearly doubled last year to 1,000 vacancies, leading to a budget request that would significantly improve the educator ecosystem to keep teachers in the classroom and attract newcomers to the profession.
Specifics include:
- $80 million to give all 50,000-plus school personnel a 7 percent pay increase – the largest one-year increase in recent history; it would bring New Mexico educator pay in line with Texas and Colorado.
- $200.5 million to raise teacher minimum salaries to $50,000, $60,000 and $70,000 depending on tier (the second increase under the administration of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham; the tiers were $36,000, $44,000 and $54,000 when she took office).
- $1.5 million for educator recruitment.
- $500,000 to support teachers seeking National Board Certification.
- $3.7 million for teacher professional development.
The 7 percent raise and higher minimums would result in an average teacher salary of $64,006.
The pandemic also highlighted the need to expand behavioral health services for students. This request seeks $4 million to provide behavioral health service providers for general education students, who are not currently eligible. Other budget highlights include:
- $10 million to expand and sustain the state’s Community Schools initiative, which allows existing schools to implement specific strategies to provide students with whatever they need to be academically successful by leveraging community resources
- $11.5 million to improve literacy in this state-sponsored Year of Literacy
Almost 95.7 percent of the requested funding ($3.6 billion) would be distributed directly to New Mexico’s school districts and state-chartered schools through the State Equalization Guarantee to fund salary increases and meet local needs – an 11.4 percent increase over appropriated funding for Fiscal Year 2022.
An additional $166.4 million would go to specific spending categories including transportation, standards-based assessments, educational technology and Native American student education among others.
Finally, a remaining $47.2 million would be allocated to the department to support strategic initiatives known commonly as “below-the-line” programs. Below-the-line appropriations support a variety of targeted purposes, including recruiting and inducting teachers, efforts to respond to the Martinez and Yazzie Consolidated Lawsuit, student nutrition and wellness, and pathways and profiles for student success.