Albuquerque Teachers Federation President Ellen Bernstein

ATF News:

ALBUQUERQUE – Albuquerque Teachers Federation President Ellen Bernstein released the following statement:

“Gov. Martinez and Legislative leaders both released their draft budgetary priorities for the upcoming 30-day session of the New Mexico Legislature, and their approaches offer stark contrasts on how to best utilize the small increase in revenue for the upcoming fiscal year.

“Legislators are calling for a 1.5 percent increase for all educational employees across the board — including early education, higher education, and classified employees — and also an increase in teacher pay minimums at every level. The draft legislative budget also allocates more money (over $22 million) for student interventions from below the line and places it into local control. It also restores money into instructional materials, which were cut during the last legislative session. 

“In stark contrast, and although Governor Martinez is promoting a slightly larger 2 percent raise for all teachers in New Mexico, the tired push for merit pay is again front and center. Teacher merit bonuses based on the deeply flawed, inconsistent, and universally discredited teacher evaluation system has already been vetted and rejected. And sadly, the déjà vu attempt to lower standards for the profession are front and center in the repeat of her ‘adjunct’ teacher idea, which is nothing more than a flimsy attempt to hide the historic teacher shortage in our State. Both proposals are a continued disserve to our students.

“At least the Governor is slightly more aware of the chronic cuts in education budgets than her Secretary-designee Ruszkowski, who asked for absolutely no increase for public education in his own draft budget. Luckily the Legislature heard loud and clear from actual education stakeholders we must focus a fair share of new State revenue for New Mexico’s public schools, students, and teachers.

“The differences are clear — our Governor wants to continue to penalize teachers through her flawed evaluation system while ignoring the historic vacancies and poor recruitment of new teachers into our profession, and the NM Legislature is pursuing a budget which recognizes and prioritizes our schools and all educational employees in New Mexico.”