At a joint budget session of the House and Senate education committees on Monday, lawmakers made clear their intent to prioritize literacy, staff shortages, attendance, pay increases, career technical education and improving outcomes for students.

Analysts with the New Mexico Legislative Education Study Committee and the Legislative Finance Committee proposed the following investments for such initiatives:

• $46.2 million for career technical education
• $25 million to raise the minimum salary for all school personnel to $30,000 per year
• $3 million for planning and design for a statewide literacy center
• $30 million in flexible funds for literacy, community schools and innovative projects
• $15 million for the Public Education Department鈥檚 education fellows program
• $15 million for attendance programs

The $3 million for the literacy center is far below the governor鈥檚 request for $30 million.

New Mexico鈥檚 public education secretary Arsenio Romero also outlined plans to embed structured literacy within all New Mexico schools, something that is in line with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham鈥檚 priorities for the 2024 session.

鈥淭his has been proven time and time again to be the game-changer we need,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f we can have students become confident, competent readers at their grade level it鈥檚 going to have a positive effect on every other core area within their education but it鈥檚 also going to have a benefit for them their entire lives.鈥�

He also requested $94.5 million for increases to teacher salaries and called on legislators to boost funding for the educator fellows program. The program provides coaching, hands-on experience and financial support to students who want to become certified educators.

鈥淭hese teachers now that are in pre-service programs are getting that experience now so when they get their own classrooms they鈥檙e ready to roll and be successful, year one, day one,鈥� Romero said.

Lawmakers expressed strong, bipartisan support for career technical education, calling it one of the biggest factors in student success.

Senate Education Committee Chair William Soules (D-Las Cruces) said he wanted to ensure there was sufficient funding for career technical education.

鈥淲hen we are flush with money, education is the best place to put the extra money, not a place to try to do things on the cheap or see how much we can get for how little 鈥� but how much can we put into good programs that are going to make a difference,鈥� Soules said.

Extended school hours drew bipartisan criticism from lawmakers concerned about smaller, rural schools. The New Mexico Public Education Department recently proposed a rule that would require all schools to have a minimum of 180 instruction days, forcing some schools to go from a four-day week to a five-day week.

鈥淲hat happened to local control? Why do we have a school board when y鈥檃ll are mandating sitting up here in Santa Fe that we are going to increase our school days?鈥� said Rep. Candy Spence Ezzell (R-Roswell) 鈥淚 am appalled by what鈥檚 happening in our schools. Our schools are excelling when there鈥檚 a smaller student-to-teacher ratio. It鈥檚 not going to improve just by adding more days on it.鈥�

Ezzell said that additional costs for fuel, meals and utilities for rural schools to add an extra day would 鈥渂reak鈥� small schools.

Some lawmakers expressed concern about making wise investments to support struggling students and meeting the guidelines in the Yazzie-Martinez ruling, a landmark public education reform case in New Mexico.

Rep. Yanira Gurrola (D-Albuquerque) expressed concern that there was not enough funding for bilingual education in any of the budget proposals. Legislative analysts found that there were at least 4,000 educators in New Mexico with bilingual certifications who were not teaching bilingual classes because of inadequate pay for an intense workload.

Gurrola this session which would create pipelines between the state鈥檚 colleges, universities and tribal colleges to bring bilingual educators into K-12 schools. She said in the committee meeting that it鈥檚 not enough for someone to be certified. It requires funding and resources for bilingual programs to be successful.

鈥淪ome of the schools who were presented to us as schools that beat the odds and were successful, they were trained in structural literacy and they were supplemented by other trainings to meet the needs of the diverse population,鈥� Gurrola said.

Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero (D-Albuquerque) said she wanted to see better data collecting and metrics to show skeptics where to invest money to comply with Yazzie-Martinez and help legislators make better decisions about education funding to support the state鈥檚 diverse student population.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not at risk. We鈥檙e exceptional. We come to the classroom exceptional, because of our language, because of our culture, because of what we bring to the table,鈥� Roybal Caballero said. 鈥淓verybody else doesn鈥檛 understand that 鈥� We need to stop doing business as usual, which is all of this, and create something different.鈥�

Missouri lawmakers greeted a proposed $300 million increase to the formula that funds the state鈥檚 public schools with questions Wednesday, with some believing the figure seemed appropriate and others wondering if a change to the state鈥檚 accountability system drove estimates too high.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education unveiled its proposed budget for fiscal year 2025 during the State Board of Education meeting on Tuesday. If lawmakers approve the budget for programs, like literacy coaches, and fully fund the foundation formula, it will bring a $235 million increase in the education budget.

The department calculated a new state adequacy target, a multiplier in the formula that funds schools. The target is determined by looking at per-pupil spending of districts scoring above 90% in the Missouri School Improvement Program, an assessment composed of standardized test scores, attendance and other metrics.

The new state adequacy target should be $7,145, Deputy Education Commissioner Kari Monsees told lawmakers Wednesday, up from $6,375. The target has been frozen for five years.

This new multiplier will be phased in over two years, leading to a $120 million increase in general state aid in the first year and $300 million in year two.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 a reasonable amount,鈥� Rep. Ed Lewis, R-Moberly, told The Independent, adding that the state adequacy target has been fairly flat for over a decade.

鈥淣ow, it鈥檚 going to jump. It鈥檚 a significant amount, but it鈥檚 also a number that鈥檚 doable,鈥� he said.

Lewis, a former teacher, is among lawmakers who have attempted to get more funding to public education.

He is unsure if the full legislative body will have the appetite to fully fund the formula with the new recalculation.

鈥淭here are people who think that education is getting too much money,鈥� Lewis said. 鈥淚f we can talk about choice, we can talk about financing, we can talk about accountability, those three problems and put them all together, we can build a coalition that changes the trajectory of education.鈥�

Rep. Doug Richey, R-Excelsior Springs, questioned if the new state accountability system, MSIP6, artificially inflated the target calculated by the state鈥檚 education department. He asked how many districts score above 90% now, compared to the MSIP5.

Just over half of Missouri鈥檚 school districts scored above 90% in the previous scoring system. Now, only 40 out of 554 school districts and charters make the cut, and their per-pupil spending determines the state adequacy target.

Richey wondered if this impacted the new increased calculation.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not seeing an actual increase in expenditures, necessarily,鈥� he said during the joint committee on education meeting. 鈥淛ust a culling, if you will, of some of the lower-spending districts that are no longer at that level.鈥�

Monsees said there are safeguards that keep DESE from using outliers in their calculation. The state adequacy target is calculated using the high-performing district鈥檚 old expenditure data and any state aid added since the current formula was established.

He said the group of 40, rather than 300, is a more accurate sample of the state鈥檚 high-achieving districts.

鈥淲hen we had over 300 districts scoring over 90%, it wasn鈥檛 very discerning,鈥� Monsees said.

He anticipates districts needing the boost in the adequacy target because pandemic-era assistance programs are ending before fiscal year 2025.

Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds from the federal government and a state allowance that gives school districts aid based on their pre-pandemic attendance rates end at the completion of the current fiscal year.

鈥淢any school districts are gonna see a significant drop in that weighted average daily attendance, part of which is going to be offset or more by the increase in the state adequacy target,鈥� Monsees told lawmakers Wednesday.

He said districts鈥� enrollment decreased 3% in the fall of 2020 but have regained 1%. Attendance is part of the funding calculation, so a lower student population will decrease the amount of aid the state owes districts in fiscal year 2025.

The foundation formula provides the state aid to local school districts, but DESE is also planning to ask for a number of appropriations. Its proposed budget for fiscal year 2025 is $235 million higher than the current appropriation.

The state鈥檚 wish list includes nearly $2 million for early childhood special education, over $5 million for literacy tutors, $3.7 million for math coaches and over $6.6 million for the public placements fund, which reimburses school districts educating foster children.

Monsees told The Independent that DESE plans to make recommendations for changes to the foundation formula before the next legislative session begins in January. The state is looking at a weighted funding system that gives school districts money for student populations including disabled students and those that qualify for free and reduced lunch.

said the weights were 鈥渘ot based on any empirical analysis.鈥�

Lawmakers filed bills and amendments during the legislative session this year to amend these weights but were unable to get the proposals to the governor.

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