Feb. 4, 2014 Dear honorable lawmakers: I write to ask that you support HB2 in its current form. 1. In the form I endorsed on Thursday last week, there was $148 million above the line. I understand now the compromise has brought that level down to $136 million above the line. At least this amount gets our state close to maintaining our special education effort for federal grant requirements. There is $3 million in contingency funding in HB2 just in case we need another small amount. Education analysts are advising that moving $12 million from above the line to below the line may put NM at risk of failing to maintain effort once again and therefore at risk of losing federal special education funding. I also wonder: If APS and other districts ensured in these years of fiscal crisis to hold special education harmless, why is there no outcry that the Public Education Department didnt do the same?! This issue is a result of irresponsible fund handling. And why wont anyone hold Secretary-designate Skandera responsible for this misuse of funds? When we talk about accountability we should be applying this standards across all government entities, including PED. 2. HB2 funds district fixed costs at 90% of what is necessary for us to pay our bills. This includes insurance, utilities, etc. It isnt what we hoped, but we accept this as a compromise. 3. HB2 appropriately funds a phase in for class size maximums. We must have money above the line to meet statutory requirements. If the $12 million is taken from above the line and put below, class sizes are the first thing that will have to compromised. We accept the phase-in because frankly, we have 140-plus openings in APS and I dont know where we would hire all the teachers we need to reduce class sizes immediately. Furthermore, our parents, teachers and students do not want large class sizes anymore. We heard testimony the past two weekends of high school teachers with 176 students and middle school teachers with 167 students per day! We parents are tired of this! Teachers are overburdened! 4. HB2 provides a 3% average salary increase for all public school employees. This raise is desperately needed as educators consistently took home less pay through the fiscal crisis. If the PED believes we must treat teachers as professionals, as they claim with the new evaluation system, then we must provide them with professional pay. I met an educational assistant at Marie Hughes Elementary School, where my daughter attends. She works 60 hours in two weeks and takes home $275 after taxes, retirement and insurance. How do we get away with this in this state?! Our cafeteria workers, our janitors, our bus drivers: their service is invaluable but their pay doesnt reflect that. 5. HB2 funds needed increases in minimum salaries for all teacher tiers. NM is losing teachers from the college of ed because we pay, on average, $10,000 less for beginning teachers and $10,000 less at all other levels. I have met so many teachers with Ph.Ds and masters degrees, in addition to certifications. Frankly, I wouldnt work with that kind of educational background for the pay they receive! Its deplorable. Increasing the minimum salaries begins to solve the structural pay problem that exists in NM. Furthermore, even if this salary is increased as it should be, who wants to be a teacher anymore? Secretary-designate Skandera has done a fine job of making teaching an undesirable profession, as evidenced by the retirements we are seeing! 6. HB2 is already a $12 million dollar compromise, now the Republicans want $12 million more. When HB3 was introduced to HAFC it has $148 million allocated to the SEG. After the weekend, it was decreased to $136 million. What more can we do to compromise? The compromise already accomplishes the following: a. HEC did not zero out the Governor’s initiatives below the line. HEC was incredibly responsible about money below the line by placing it in statutorily created funds so there is accountability of the PED. IF districts should be held accountable to the legislature, it is appropriate for the PED to be held accountable as well. b. Reads to Lead: PED requested $15 million below the line. HB2 has $13.5 million in the Early Reading Fund. This money is at the PED discretion to distribute but there is reporting requirements in the law. We parents and teachers demand that PED be accountable to this money and distribute it fairly across districts! This is a great compromise that achieves the governors reading initiative while making PED accountable to you as lawmakers and us as parents and teachers. c. Interventions in D and F Schools: PED requested $9 million. HB2 has $4 million in the School in Need of Improvement Fund. Frankly, gentlemen, I have two elementaries that received Ds. When the PED intervention team came out to visit, they couldnt find anything wrong. They were told to come up with something. This money is best used in another manner and is an adequate compromise that we reluctantly accept. d. Univ. of Virginia: When we found out the PED was using our taxpayer money to send principals to training at UVA, we were angry. Teachers and parents are wondering: Why not UNM, ENMU, Highlands, or NMSU? HB2 places $4 million below the line for Next Generation Principal Development with language that a portion of the money must go to NM Universities. We reluctantly accept this compromise. e. NMTEACH: PED requested $6 million below the line. HB2 puts $3 million below the line for NMTEACH. Teachers and parents reluctantly accept this compromise. f. HB2 makes $30 million available for instructional material funds. $20 million in the instructional material fund and $9.9 million through capital outlay dollars. This is the most generous appropriation to instructional material funds that our state has seen since the fiscal crisis. And I would further like to reiterate that our adoptions at APS take more than one year to do! We must set aside $500,000 every year to buy workbooks with our allocations! We are not taking the money and hoarding it! HB2 does not fund any new initiatives below the line for PED, but neither did the LFC recommendation. LFC is a bipartisan committee with the expertise and knowledge about state budgets and efficient spending. HEC followed their lead. I respectfully request that you support the compromise as it stands now. Any further money diverted below the line will cause great anger among your constituents. Thank you, Kathy Korte
Posted on: Tue, 04 Feb 2014 18:01:44 +0000
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