New Mexico asks troops to teach
Volunteers from the National Guard and state agencies sought to fill in at schools amid Omicron surge.
SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico is the first state in the nation to ask National Guard troops to serve as substitute teachers as preschools and K-12 public schools struggle to keep classrooms open amid surging COVID-19 cases.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, speaking at a news conference Wednesday, announced the unprecedented effort to reopen classrooms in the capital city of Santa Fe and shore up staffing across the state.
New Mexico has been struggling for years to recruit and retain educators; teaching is routinely left to long-term substitutes who do not have full credentials.
Lujan Grisham’s administration says school districts and preschools are seeking at least 800 substitute teachers and day-care workers for shifts ranging from one classroom period to the entire day. They’re also asking state bureaucrats to volunteer to serve.
Other states have called on state workers and National Guard soldiers to support schools. Last year, Massachusetts mobilized its National Guard, first to support COVID-19 testing on school campuses, then to drive school buses. On Tuesday, Oklahoma said state workers could volunteer as school substitutes while continuing to receive their salaries.
But New Mexico is the first state to report recruiting troops into the classroom in response to coronavirus staffing shortages.
Members of the Guard will be on active duty and draw their usual pay while teaching in classrooms. State workers will take paid leave that doesn’t count against their vacation time.
The governor said that state workers are being encouraged to participate in a spirit of public service, and that no one is being drafted. The state hopes to quickly deploy 500 new substitute teachers and daycare workers.
“We’ve determined that we have enough state employees, with the volunteer support with the Guard, to get to that 500 fairly readily, and that’s just looking at key departments like the Education Department and Veterans Department,” Lujan Grisham said at a news conference on the steps of a vacant high school in Santa Fe.
A surge in school employees’ infections linked to the coronavirus’ Omicron variant prompted a switch this week to remote classes at Santa Fe Public Schools; that change could end as soon as Monday.
State education officials say volunteers from the National Guard and state agencies can qualify for substitute teaching with as little as two hours of training and a two-step background check. School districts will decide whether military personnel will appear in uniform or civilian clothes.
The recruiting program seeks volunteers from a pool of 16,000 state workers and 4,000 troops.
Republican Jim Townsend of Artesia, minority leader in New Mexico’s House of Representatives, said the Democratic governor is calling in the wrong people to resolve a crisis of her own making.
Lujan Grisham “wants to be a hero when her administration does something unusual ... just to cover up her failure to put together a plan that works,” he said, adding: “They’re not teachers. That’s not what they were trained to do.”
The state’s Democraticled Legislature is considering proposals to recruit and retain teachers, including a minimum 7% pay increase for all public school staff, increased salaries at various career stages, and spending to pay off teachers’ student loans.
“Even before COVID, I had a big need for substitute teachers,” said state Public Education Secretary Kurt Steinhaus, formerly a school district superintendent at Los Alamos. “Now we’ve got the Omicron variant.”