PED asks for operating budget hike
Agency is seeking increase of some $1.5M for fiscal year 2021
The state Public Education Department is asking lawmakers for an increase of about $1.5 million for its fiscal year 2021 operating budget, some of which will go to pay for 10 new positions the department is proposing.
The PED has requested $49.4 million for fiscal 2021 — a 3% increase from this year’s $47.9 million operating budget, according to a Legislative Education Study Committee brief.
PED Secretary-designate Ryan Stewart said that request was presented last week to the committee.
“I think the number that was in the presentation that we presented to LESC was $1.485 million, and a good portion of that
would go to about 10 additional (fulltime-equivalent employees),” he told the Journal.
The operating budget request is for running the agency, which is made separately from school district budget requests.
Adán Delgado, deputy secretary for finance and operations, told the Journal in an email that the $1.5 million from the general fund would be allocated to “personal services and employee benefits,” “contractual services” and “other.” He said the breakdown is:
■ Personal services and employee benefits, $975,100.
■ Contractual services, $200,000.
■ Other, $309,900.
However, he did not respond to questions by the Journal about how much was specifically going to the 10 new positions or what “other” entails.
The request for a budget increase comes after a judge ruled last year that New Mexico and its PED were not giving all students a constitutionally guaranteed free and sufficient education.
The rulling in the “Yazzie-Martinez” lawsuit, a consolidated effort filed in 2014 by the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the PED wasn’t sufficiently monitoring school districts’ use of funds or efforts to support “atrisk” students, those who live in lowincome households, Native American students and English-language learners. The plaintiffs said in a June update that the state and lawmakers still had not done enough to ensure all students have access to an adequate education, despite an increase in education spending during this year’s legislative session.
PED’s request for the extra money and staffers is partly driven by the judge’s findings.
“The PED is undergoing a fundamental shift from a compliance organization to a leadership and support organization. This shift is occurring in the context of substantial new requirements for program development and oversight as a result of the Yazzie-Martinez lawsuit,” the PED wrote in its overview document to the LESC.
One of the proposed staff positions would be in the audit bureau “to ensure compliance with the district court’s finding in the consolidated Martinez and Yazzie lawsuit,” the LESC brief says. Another position would be to provide technical help for districts, something the lawsuit also called for.
Other proposed positions are for a staffer responsible for culturally relevant textbooks, one to work on the implementation of the new extended learning time program and one to work on districts’ budget oversight.
“There are definitely additional requirements that we have that Yazzie entails that these 10 FTE will certainly help with, particularly in the area of financial oversight,” Stewart said.
Stewart said a priority of the additional employees would be to implement the Indian Education, Bilingual Multicultural Education and Hispanic Education acts.
An LESC analysis points out that the PED is staffed below what it was a decade ago. The PED additional staffing request comes with the message that the PED needs more people to reach its goals.
But as of September, the PED had a 27% vacancy rate: 205 filled positions and 77 vacant, which is higher than the previous year.
Stewart said getting those positions filled is going to be a priority to see clearly where there are deficits.
However, he said, he didn’t anticipate the FY21 budget request to decrease, even after the vacant spots are filled.
Stewart said the PED funding level allows for an approximate 15% vacancy rate, because every agency is funded with the assumption that there will be some open slots due to turnover.
About 10 years ago, amid budget deficits, the PED requested a reduction in its general fund appropriation, resulting in 33 layoffs, according to the LESC.
Fiscal year 2021, in contrast, is expected to mirror this fiscal year’s budget boom.
The state will have an estimated $907 million in “new” money available in the coming budget year, due primarily to an oil and gas boom in southeastern New Mexico, according to revenue forecasts by legislative and executive economists.
Overall, the state is on track to spend more than $7 billion this budget year, while revenues are expected to reach an all-time high of nearly $8 billion for the 2021 budget year, which starts next July.
“New money” is defined as the difference between projected revenue and current state spending levels.
According to the LESC analysis, the PED is projected to get about 60%, or $30 million, of its fiscal 2021 operating budget from federal funds and about 30%, or $15.1 million, from the general fund. Other state funds — educator licensure fees and administrative fees for state-chartered charter schools — and transfers make up the rest.
Stewart said he felt encouraged going before lawmakers last week, saying they expressed support for the department’s request.
How much funding the department ultimately receives will be decided in the legislative session that begins in January. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration and a panel of state lawmakers will each issue proposals as the Legislature gathers for the 30-day session.