Early education progress praised
Report finds state increased spending, enrollment; reaching most benchmarks to providing high-quality prekindergarten
New Mexico is known for ranking 49th or 50th among states in national reports about child well-being and educational measures, such as student achievement and graduation rates. Advocates for years have pushed for the state, which also struggles with the nation’s highest rates of poverty and unemployment, to invest more money in early childhood education programs, particularly for low-income families, to help turn the tide.
As fierce debates at the state and local levels continue on how to fund dramatic expansions of programs for young children, a new report credits efforts New Mexico has made in recent years to steadily increase early education funding and enrollment.
The National Institute of Early Education Research at Rutgers University, in its 2016 State of Preschool Yearbook, says New Mexico, for the second year in a row, has met eight of 10 basic benchmarks for providing highquality pre-K and ranks 20th in the nation for how much it spends per student on prekindergarten programs.
“New Mexico is firmly in the middle of the pack,” said Steven Barnett, director of the National Institute of Early Education Research, in an interview Tuesday, a day ahead of the report’s scheduled public release. “But New Mexico keeps making real progress, better progress than the nation as a whole since it moved out of the recession,” he said. “It’s not near the top, but it keeps moving up.”
Seven states still do not offer any statefunded pre-K programs, the report says, and eight other states have made no progress on increasing enrollment.
The new report closely follows a failed city of Santa Fe effort to impose a 2-cents-perounce tax on sugary beverages to fund pre-K spots for more than 900 children in the city. Voters rejected the tax by a wide margin in an election that sharply divided the community. And during the 60-day legislative session that ended in March, lawmakers failed to pass controversial legislation that would have drawn investment revenues from a $15 billion state land endowment for pre-K and other early childhood programs.
Still, according to the State of Preschool Yearbook — which examines factors such as enrollment, funding, teacher qualifications, professional development and program quality standards — New Mexico increased its spending on early childhood education programs by 29 percent between fiscal year 2015 and 2016, to $51 million.
The state’s spending per student is $5,233, the report says, higher than the national average of $4,967.
The state also has seen increasing enrollment, to more than 9,700 children in 2015-16 from about 8,400 the year before and 7,700 in 2013-14.
New Mexico ranks 16th in the nation for providing pre-K access to 4-year-olds, the report says, and 22nd when it comes to providing access for 3-year-olds. The state just began offering a half-day pilot pre-K program to 3-year-olds in 2015-16.
Henry Varela, a spokesman for the state Children, Youth and Families Department, said in an email Tuesday that early childhood education remains a top priority for the department. “Since 2011, funding towards Pre-K and Early Pre-K has more than tripled, giving almost double the amount of children in New Mexico the opportunity to take part in early childhood education,” he said.
In a statement emailed through a spokeswoman, New Mexico Public Education Secretary Hanna Skandera also touted the state’s growing investment in early education. “While this study is encouraging news,” she said, “we’ll continue to raise the bar and put New Mexico’s kids first.”
According to the report, only two states, Rhode Island and Alabama, met all 10 of the research institute’s benchmarks for quality
pre-K standards, and six states met nine of the standards. New Mexico was among seven states that met eight of the standards.
New Mexico falls short when it comes to education standards for its teachers and assistants, the report says.
It also fails to pay its pre-K teachers enough money, Barnett said in the interview.
In June 2016, a report by the U.S. Department of Education and the Health and Human Services Department said preschool teachers earn less than janitors, tree trimmers and baristas, and far less than other educators. That report said the median pay for a preschool teacher was $26,670, while starting teachers in New Mexico public schools now earn a minimum of $34,000.
Claire Dudley Chavez, with the United Way of Santa Fe County, which runs a pre-K program in Santa Fe and leads a statewide initiative to shape early education policies, agreed that low salaries for pre-K educators remain a challenge.
“One of the strongest indicators of quality and long-term impact of pre-K is the teacher in the classroom,” she said, “and we need to make sure that teacher has top-notch educator qualifications, professional development opportunities and adequate pay.”