GUEST COLUMN: Asking the right questions

When I was in kindergarten, my teacher, Ms. Pansy Woodruff, put me in charge of handing out milk at recess. I was the smallest kid in class but was given the power that day to decide who got chocolate milk and who got white milk. I took that lesson to heart and see it as the beginning of my interest in leadership. In first grade, Sister Stella put me in charge of selling tickets to our annual play. The need to produce a full account at the end showed me the importance of financial responsibility. In third grade, Sister Anita Marie put me in charge of the candy cash box, which I credit with my desire to be of service. These teachers showed me something about myself, about the world, and who I wanted to be in it. It’s what I believe education can be for everyone and why I believe helping kids discover the best things about themselves is the key to their success. And just like Ms. Pansy Woodruff, Sister Stella and Sister Anita Marie, our teachers play an essential part in this discovery.

As a former teacher, counselor and superintendent, I saw firsthand how inspiring students are and how challenging it can be to support them all. So, 34 years ago I became a senator to extend my support to every single student in the state. And I am proud of the work we’ve done for our schools. Since 2019, the Legislature has increased public school funding by $1.6 billion, or 58%. When federal, state and local funds are combined, New Mexico now ranks around the national average for per-student funding. And yet, we consistently have some of the worst educational outcomes. We have raised teacher salaries to be competitive, and yet, teachers still leave faster than we can replace them. Now, we’re starting to ask: What are we getting for all that money? Are we actually improving education in New Mexico?

Luckily, we are in an extraordinary position. We have a once-in-a-lifetime revenue opportunity to change our state’s trajectory. And like that day from kindergarten, we have some exciting and tough decisions to make about how to allocate resources. We must keep the lights on and continue investing in our people, but we can also afford to try new ideas and think big! This year we tried something other states can only dream of — funding pilot programs for three years out of our government results and opportunity fund to determine how well they work before funding them long term. This means we can test different solutions to deep-seated, systemic issues while at the same time continuing to push forward in more conventional ways.

For example, about half of the growth in public school funding since 2019 has been dedicated to educator pay, and our teachers are now paid around the national average. Yet teacher turnover and vacancy rates remain just as high. While we must maintain momentum on teacher pay, our original vision of advancing teacher quality through the three-tiered licensure system two decades ago has essentially become just another pay schedule. Nevertheless, we still see pockets of innovation happening when schools have a few extra resources and big ideas. Carlsbad has taken teacher pay and staffing to a new level through an approach, called Innovative Staffing Strategies, that has dynamic, experienced teachers leading a team of teachers for a large group of students or has them taking on larger loads for additional pay. The district compared student performance in the middle school using Innovative Staffing Strategies with student performance in a similar school without it — a classic scientific experiment — and found better performance in the school using the strategies. I’m excited by this because doing what my teachers did for me, and what I tried to do for students, is hard. It requires having the space to see each student clearly and school leaders who can inspire teachers to take on leadership roles as well. I want to see if innovative staffing can create more of that space by putting teachers who are good at uncovering student strengths in contact with as many students, and other teachers, as possible.

We hear a lot of good ideas in the Legislature, particularly when the state has resources, and the needs are great. But we need more proposals that are designed like Carlsbad’s experiment, structured in a way that truly helps us discern between what sounds promising and what demonstrates improvement. It allows us to take a calculated risk for a few years — if it doesn’t work, we can simply reprioritize resources, and if it does work, we can fund it in a more permanent way. For this approach to succeed, though, the state needs a plan of evaluation before funding a program with clear research questions and a collective goal to reach. With these tools, we will be able to answer the questions on everyone’s minds: What are we getting for all that money? Are we actually improving education in New Mexico?