Senate Bill 178 would drive dollars to the classroom to benefit New Mexico’s students

New Mexico has made record-breaking investments in public education in recent years, yet thousands of students still lag behind their peers, waiting for the “transformation” they have been promised. With the state’s education budget reaching $4.7 billion in 2025, the primary question no longer should be how much is spent but instead where is that money going?

The money needs to reach our students and especially our most vulnerable. That is the focus of Senate Bill 178, developed by Think New Mexico and sponsored by Senate Finance Committee Chair George Muñoz (D-Cibola, McKinley and San Juan counties).

The core of Senate Bill 178 is a requirement that 90% of funding that a school generates must actually be spent at that school in districts enrolling more than 2,000 students.

Currently, New Mexico funds public schools through the State Equalization Guarantee. This distribution to districts is based on the number and characteristics of enrolled students. For example, students in special education or English learners generate more funds than students who do not need additional services. However, once those dollars are sent to a district, there is no requirement that additional funds generated by students are actually spent on those students.

This matters because our research shows that the New Mexico schools that spend 90-100% of their per-pupil funding on instruction see higher proficiency in math, reading and science on average. During the 2024-25 school year, students in schools that spent 90-100% of per-pupil spending on instruction scored an average reading proficiency of 46% compared to a 39% average for students in schools that spent only 70-79% of per-pupil spending on instruction.

In 2024-25, schools that reached 90-100% for instruction spending averaged an 82% graduation rate compared to a 74% average in schools where only 70-79% of per-pupil spending went to instruction.

Senate Bill 178 also calls for all school districts and charter schools to develop three-year, evidence-based spending plans detailing how they will use state funding to provide culturally and linguistically relevant education that improves outcomes for at-risk students. Too many high schools have improved graduation rates, yet have proficiency rates well below the state average. Graduating students who cannot read at grade level or perform basic math is simply not acceptable.

Under this proposal, districts must show progress over a three-year period for at least one of the student groups named in Martinez-Yazzie lawsuit: low-income students, English learners, Native Americans, and students with disabilities. If progress is inadequate, the Public Education Department (PED) would intervene. And when schools get it right, there is an incentive for additional discretionary funding for schools to double down on what is working.

Opponents of SB 178 may argue that more mandates and reporting are not the right fix, but flexibility without accountability is just a recipe for more of the same, which is exactly what we have been getting for students named in the Martinez-Yazzie lawsuit. We must stop measuring success by the size of the budget and instead measure it by student success.

The most recent iteration of the PED’s Martinez-Yazzie draft action plan — which was mandated by the courts in 2025 — found that: “There is a need for accountability in how funds are utilized, ensuring that funds directly impact student learning and safety rather than administrative convenience.” We are long overdue in getting this right.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has given Senate Bill 178 a message so that it can be considered this session. Please contact your legislators and urge them to pass this bill to ensure that more of your tax dollars are reaching the classroom where actual learning takes place.

Mandi Torrez is the education reform director for Think New Mexico and is the 2020 New Mexico Teacher of the Year.