Education leaders seek more funds
Administrators tell committee they need more funding, flexibility as virus wreaks havoc on state’s school system
Educational leaders say the shortterm future of New Mexico’s public schools revolves around two words: hold harmless.
The terminology refers to school districts’ push to keep funding levels based on an average of the past three years’ budgets, rather than enrollment figures from the 2020-21 school year — a time when public schools have seen thousands of students withdraw during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re looking for stability,” Dennis Roch, president of the New Mexico Superintendents’ Association and a former state representative, told members of the Legislative Education Study Committee on Wednesday.
A drop in funding in the 2022 fiscal year will leave school districts “scrambling this spring to reduce staffing to get down under the new budget numbers,” Roch said, adding that when the pandemic subsides and students begin returning to schools, “We will have to scramble to staff up to accommodate their needs.”
Roch was one of several administrators representing teachers unions, school boards, superintendents, parent-teacher groups and charter schools to lay out priorities for legislative action in the 60-day session, scheduled to begin in mid-January.
They collectively painted a portrait of students unable to access the internet to take classes from home; of disconnected families and children reeling from social, emotional and economic blows brought on by the virus; and of difficulty in finding and retaining teachers in a world strained by the pandemic.
More teachers may be willing to leave the profession because of the challenges brought on by COVID-19, they said, adding the state has at least 570 teacher vacancies.
“Teachers are overwhelmed,” said Mary Parr-Sanchez, president of the National Education Association-New Mexico.
She said school districts are “barely” meeting the needs of students and those who serve them.
The coalition also asked legislators to increase the salaries of all school employees, to ease certain requirements of the school’s attendance act to account for students whose absenteeism is no fault of their own and to allow districts flexibility when it comes to return-to-school practices, among other issues.
And given the challenge some high school seniors may face in terms of logging in the required courses for graduation, several suggested the state change its graduation policies in “the short term,” as Roch put it.
“We are aware that the current pandemic presents challenges to kids getting across the finish line with course requirements,” he said. “Maybe some need extended time to complete courses.”
While New Mexico also allows students to graduate over the course of five or six years if they need more time, Roch said under the circumstances, perhaps this year’s crop of seniors would “be counted as traditional four-year graduates because the challenges that are impacting them are not their fault.”
House Education Committee Chairman Andrés Romero, D-Albuquerque, who is a teacher, said he has concerns about trying to project potential losses for school enrollment and funding “because we don’t know what that looks like yet. That could be a big question mark heading into a year with so many needs ... especially if districts don’t know what their needs are.”
Still, state lawmakers recently got some good news: State revenues, largely fueled by the oil and gas industry, are expected to be about $7.4 billion for fiscal year 2022 — a considerable jump from the estimated $6.2 billion they were bracing for, given the pandemic’s impact on the state’s economy.
Almost 45 percent of New Mexico’s overall budget for the current year is allocated to public education — about $3.5 billion.