Enchantment State News

Lawmakers have passed a $7.6 billion budget that will boost education and other key issues around the state. How the budget pie is split up shows that about half of the money has been allocated towards education, which includes a 4% raise for teachers and raises annual spending by $536 million, or nearly 8%.

“From public safety to the environment to education, including early childhood education from cradle to career, and healthcare. There isn’t a single area where this state requires attention in that they didn’t pay attention to in this legislative session,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement.

The budget put forth a  $216.8 million increase for public schools, continuing a trend in adding funding for education; since last year, there was more than $440 million added to school funding.

A ruling from the courts, which led to the Yazzie-Martinez lawsuit, stated that New Mexico was not meeting its constitutional obligation towards making sure students, including at-risk students, had a sufficient education, Grisham said.

There are also efforts in place besides the robust budget for schools, to further increase spending on education. A bill attached to the budget seeks a mandated increase for money headed to Albuquerque Public Schools, the largest school district in the state.

If approved, the bill states that the state Public Education Department can only sign off on APS’ operating budget if the district manages to spend less than 80%, an increases from 75%,  of its general fund dollars on instruction,  instructional and student support  services. 

In the details of the bill, Sen. Jacob Candelaria (D-Albuquerque) spells out that these rules do apply for districts with more than 50,000 students, and APS is currently the only district in the state of that size, per the Albuquerque Journal.

APS would be granted an exception if the district can show that the money it spends on instruction has increased from the previous year and is enough to support the free education and competent education of its students.

The ability to accurately monitor how education money gets spent is another piece of legislation that is being proposed in the form of Senate Bill 96, that advocates for the development of an online auditing system for financial reporting at the school level, the report went on to say, adding it would also give insight into and comparisons of how districts spend their money statewide. 

The bill was co-sponsored by Rep. Rebecca Dow (R-Truth or Consequences); she said in the Journal interview: “Let’s say you’re at a school in the West Side and it has a really high percentage of migrant students…and they have a higher than state average of children with special needs. Are there extra dollars going to that school site?”