Ed funding overhaul nears final steps despite concerns about secondary school boost

Yahoo

10-03-2025

Key provisions of a plan to overhaul New Mexico's per-student formula for financing public K-12 education are raising concerns even as the proposal nears the finish line.
State lawmakers already have allocated $4.4 billion for education spending — the single biggest piece of New Mexico's proposed budget for fiscal year 2026.
House Bill 63, the result of two years of inquiry by the Legislative Education Study Committee, would make some changes to how the state divvies that money by student, offering up targeted funds for English learners and altering the state's method for identifying students in poverty.
It also lays out extra funding for most middle and high school students; while, the proposal sailed through the Senate Education Committee with unanimous support Monday, whether it will secure the additional money for secondary students remains uncertain.
'In House Appropriations and Finance, in the budget-making process, the increase to the secondary factor — the large increase that we had — didn't make it into the budget,' the bill's sponsor, Rep. Andrés Romero, D-Albuquerque, told the committee.
Charter schools also voiced concerns about a potential loss of funds because of the bill's changes.
New Mexico's education funding formula, known as the State Equalization Guarantee, provides money to schools based on the number of students they serve, with each student currently worth about $6,000 per year.
But the formula also factors in certain student attributes — such as grade level, special education services, family income level and participation in fine arts or other specialty programs — in calculating the total dollar amount a student will bring to their school as a way to account for additional and sometimes more expensive needs.
House Bill 63 proposes a few big changes to the State Equalization Guarantee.
First, it would calculate schools' "at-risk" funding — a special pot of money intended to address the needs of students in groups considered at risk of failing — based on the Family Income Index, a measure established by the Legislature in 2021 to better estimate the number of students living in poverty at each public school.
That change, Romero said, would provide a 'better way to really pinpoint' which schools generated those funds and how they're using them to better support students.
Second, HB 63 would create a new financial factor in the funding formula, creating a stand-alone credit to support 'identified services to assist English learners to attain English language proficiency.'
English learners were previously included as one of several factors in the 'at-risk' category.
The original version of the bill proposed a third major change: An increase in state spending for middle and high schools, intended to target the downturn in proficiency and attendance that typically comes during those years.
Changes in the House Appropriations and Finance Committee, however, struck those increases for all but sixth grade. Additional dollars for seventh through 12th graders did not make it into the committee's budget proposal.
Lawmakers haven't given up on extra funding for secondary students, though.
"We're working with the [Senate] Finance Committee about putting that funding back into the budget over on this side," said Sen. Bill Soules, D-Las Cruces.
Another sticking point for the bill: Charter schools worry about proposed technical changes that would allow them to generate their own at-risk index based on their number of students in poverty, rather than using figures from their home school district.
On the whole, that's not a bad thing, said Matt Pahl, executive director of Public Charter Schools of New Mexico.
"This has been something charter schools have been wanting for a number of years — the ability to generate our own at-risk index," Pahl told the committee.
However, the change could provide a charter school with more or less at-risk funding — depending on how different it is from its home district.
The bill currently includes an extra $5 million cushion, intended to keep state education funds for charter schools steady for one year, even if the updated funding formula would call for decreases.
Romero, who represents much of Albuquerque's South Valley, noted some charter schools in his area could benefit from the change because they serve a higher population of at-risk students than Albuquerque Public Schools overall.
Jason Morgan, principal of the Academy for Technology and the Classics in Santa Fe, said the district-chartered school would see a drop of about $200,000. Morgan asked lawmakers to consider extending what's known as the "hold harmless" period — when current funding levels would be maintained — to three years.
"A one-year hold harmless means we're going to be preparing for that now. A three-year hold harmless gives us a minute to breathe," Morgan said.
Romero said he's open to making that change and plans to prioritize it throughout the interim period between legislative sessions, though it ultimately will depend on the will of the state's financial committees.