New state agency seeks 50% hike in funding for early ed

Additional $82.4M would go toward child care assistance, pre-K, pay for educators

A legislative report said Wednesday that the state’s new early childhood education department is asking for a 50 percent budget increase compared with current levels as it aims to beef up child care, prekindergarten and other programs.

The new department, which will begin operations next year, is asking for an $84.2 million increase in general fund revenue on top of the $168.5 million in general fund revenue currently supplied to early childhood programs in the state, according to a report released by the Legislative Finance Committee.

The requested increase is five times greater than the average level of budget growth that both the LFC and the office of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham have called for across all state agencies.

The Governor’s Office is aiming for an average budget increase of roughly 10 percent across the executive agencies it controls, while the LFC has urged no more than single-digit average growth across state agencies given uncertainty about oil prices and the economy.

Mariana Padilla, director of the state’s Children’s Cabinet, said the requested increase for the Early Childhood Education and Care Department, a department mandated by legislation passed this year, is necessary to strengthen programs for young children in New Mexico.

“We have a great amount of improvement that needs to be made not only with educational attainment but overall child well-being in our state,” Padilla said in an interview. “Investing in these programs is critical in allowing us to really improve those conditions and child well-being.”

Padilla, who has been overseeing the creation of the new department, preWASHINGTON

sented the new agency’s budget request to the finance committee at the Roundhouse on Wednesday.

The total request for the new department, as reported by The New Mexican last month, is $447.4 million. That includes a $26 million increase for child care assistance, a $9.9 million increase in funding for pre-K programs and a $19 million increase in wage supplements for around 3,700 educators.

“We absolutely need these investments,” Padilla said. “We are not serving children at the level they need to be served in the state of New Mexico.”

Under legislation passed earlier this year, pre-K programs currently under several departments will move to the centralized early childhood department. The new department does not yet have a Cabinet secretary.

During an LFC hearing with Padilla on Wednesday, some legislators voiced concern as to whether the state has enough providers of early childhood programs to execute the funding it is asking for.

Rep. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, said he would support the requested increase, but only “if they can prove they can get the services out.”

Rep. Jason Harper, R-Rio Rancho, added his concerns.

“A 50 percent increase is insane,” he said. “We have made increases in early childhood funding every year and they still revert funds they haven’t spent.”

Other lawmakers said they wanted to see more precise measurement of the success of programs.

“When we’re looking at a $26 million increase into this particular program, I want to know how we’re measuring success,” said Rep. Patricia Lundstrom, D-Gallup.

Plenty of support was voiced at the hearing as well.

“It will require substantial investment on the part of the state to begin to turn the ship around,” said Rep. Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque. “If we make these investments now, this same committee will experience cost savings in

10 years because we won’t have to invest so much in behavioral health and corrections.”

Legislators also noted their disappointment that a Cabinet secretary has not yet been announced.

“The Legislature moved expeditiously on this,” Sen. John Arthur Smith, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said of passing the bill that created the department. “And yet it’s a little disheartening to find we’re not ready to go.”

Padilla said the Governor’s Office had already “identified” a secretary.

“We have identified a Cabinet secretary and will be making an announcement soon on that,” she said.