N.M.'s education budget: Session brought a mix bag of funding

Mar. 10—State Public Education Secretary Arsenio Romero said he feels "pretty good" about New Mexico's education budget for the 2025 fiscal year.

"Overall, I'd have to say I feel pretty successful with what we came away with," Romero said.

The new budget, signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, represents an 8% increase in spending — $394 million more — than in the 2024 fiscal year. The expansion is expected to funnel millions of dollars toward literacy initiatives, teacher training and retention programs, school meals, community school initiatives and career technical education.

But educators and advocates didn't get everything they had sought during the legislative session.

School staff members will see average pay raises of 3%, following proposals of 4% and even 6% increases in the session's early days.

A plan to create a Tribal Education Trust Fund fizzled near the end of the session, and legislators didn't allocate funds for bilingual and multicultural initiatives.

State Rep. Derrick Lente, D-Sandia Pueblo, called the dearth of bilingual and multicultural funds, combined with the last-minute defeat of the Tribal Education Trust Fund, a blow to New Mexico students.

The goal of the Tribal Education Trust Fund was to create a consistent source of revenue for Indigenous schools, Lente said. He argued bilingual and multicultural education funding should work the same way.

"The lack of funding that I see today is absolutely alarming. ... Funding for programming like this should not be political. They should not have to have a champion associated to fight on their behalf year after year," he said.

Romero said the lack of funds for bilingual and multicultural education is worrisome.

In 2023, lawmakers and advocates celebrated the 50th anniversary of New Mexico's Bilingual Multicultural Education Act, a first-of-its-kind approach to supporting the state's population — especially Native American and Spanish-speaking students.

This year, Romero said, his agency is "going to have to be somewhat creative with how we are able to do some of the same initiatives."

The Public Education Department plans to fill the gap with other funding sources, including federal dollars, he added.

Still, "the big picture is good," said Mary Parr-Sánchez, president of the New Mexico branch of the National Education Association. "... The more money we can flow to districts in the service of children is super appreciated by educators across the state."

During the 2024-25 school year, New Mexico residents can expect:

* $86 million ifor literacy initiatives. This will expand structured literacy training to fifth grade and middle school teachers and pay for summer literacy programs for 10,000 students across the state, Romero said.

* $41 million to continue universal free school meals.

* $59 million for community schools and other initiatives. The funding represents a "historic" move to ensure schools can offer the wraparound services students and families need, Parr-Sánchez said.

* $15 million for pay differentials to recruit and retain hard-to-staff positions in special education, plus tens of millions of dollars more for educator fellowships, paid student teaching posts and other teacher preparation programs.

* $45 million for career-technical education and summer internships.

The state will spend $94 million on the 3% raises for school personnel, which Parr-Sánchez said are smaller than those educators have seen in recent years.

In 2022, lawmakers increased base teacher pay to $50,000, $60,000 or $70,000 annually, depending on experience. They followed up the next year with 6% average raises.

In a year when the Legislature had record-high funding to divvy, Parr-Sánchez said, it would have been nice to see larger raises for educators; though she said understands the impulse to save when government coffers are full.

"It's one thing to make policy in Santa Fe, and it's another thing to drive a bus, to work in a cafeteria that's overcrowded, to work in a classroom," Parr-Sánchez said. "It's just really important that we're talking to actual New Mexico educators when we're making policy."