LESC endorses package of education bills and a budget increasing teacher pay, funds pilots and school meals

The Legislative Education Study Committee on an omnibus voice vote endorsed a set of committee bills and approved staff budget recommendations that together raise the State Equalization Guarantee funding, increase teacher pay minimums and allocate money to several three-year pilot programs.

John Sena, director of the Legislative Education Study Committee (LESC), told members the package reflects multiple years of interim work and that the committee's draft annual report and budget recommendations would be finalized and printed after members approved the endorsements.

The endorsements include separate administrator licensure for principals and superintendents; a prohibition on seclusion and tighter limits on restraints in schools; statutory changes to raise teacher salary minimums to $55,000, $65,000 and $75,000 for levels 1, 2 and 3, respectively; creation of a STEM Innovation Network anchored at New Mexico State University with a three-year $6 million pilot ($2 million per year); a universal basic income pilot that would provide eligible families $1,500 while pregnant or through a child's first year; and multiple career-technical education and data-governance measures. The committee also approved staff's recommended education budget framework, which includes $334 million in additional recurring SEG funding under the staff proposal and a series of nonrecurring pilot investments.

Why it matters: the bills and budget recommendations are the culmination of work conducted in interim hearings and working groups; they would shift funding formulas and create new statutory programs that affect districts statewide, school staff compensation and targeted pilots for at-risk groups.

Key outcomes and next steps

- Annual report: The committee approved the draft annual report and authorized staff to finalize it for state printing after the committee—ndorsed legislation and budget recommendations. "This is not the final version... it'll be done in about a week," John Sena said.

- Licensure for administrators: The committee endorsed legislation to create separate licensure pathways for principals and superintendents and to grandfather current holders so they are not required to reapply under the new system.

- Restraint and seclusion: The committee endorsed a bill that defines and prohibits seclusion outright, narrows permitted restraint practices, and requires training and a trained team in schools that may need to use approved restraint techniques.

- Teacher salary minimums: The committee endorsed statutory language raising minimum teacher salaries to $55,000 (level 1), $65,000 (level 2) and $75,000 (level 3). Sena said the committee nd staff expect these changes to increase principal and counselor pay because those salaries are tied to level-3 teacher pay.

- STEM Innovation Network (NMSU): The committee endorsed a bill to create a center of excellence at New Mexico State University as a statewide STEM Innovation Network hub with funding of $2 million per year for a three-year pilot to support regional hubs and coordination.

- Universal basic income pilot for infants: The committee endorsed a pilot, sponsored in the Senate, to deliver $1,500 to qualifying families who are pregnant or have a child under 1 year old, contingent on participation in prenatal care and home visiting. The sponsor said the pilot would cover roughly 2,000 families (about 10% of the birth cohort) and that program design would attempt to avoid reducing recipients' eligibility for other state assistance. The motion passed; minutes note two members opposed, names were not specified on the record.

- Career technical education incentives: The committee endorsed a pilot that would pay districts after students earn industry-recognized credentials; districts would receive stipends intended to sustain high-quality CTE programs.

- Data governance memorial and AI oversight study: The committee endorsed a memorial to continue a formal study of state data governance and the use of artificial intelligence in public education systems, with the aim of proposing a governance structure to coordinate data across PED, higher education and early childhood agencies.

- Expand LESC study authority: The committee again endorsed expanding LESC uthority to study all public education (early childhood through higher education), a measure the committee has passed before but was vetoed in earlier sessions.

Budget highlights the committee approved

- SEG and formula changes: LESC staff recommended a recurring SEG increase of roughly $334 million (about an 8% increase under the staff proposal). Major elements include replacing multiple poverty indicators with a family income index and raising the at-risk factor to 0.40, creating a stand-alone English-learner factor, a recommended increase to the secondary factor (grades 7-12) from 1.25 to 1.30 (estimated cost $51 million) and adding sixth grade to the higher-secondary factor (estimated cost $40 million).

- Teacher compensation and related costs: The recommendation includes a staff proposal for a 3% across-the-board pay increase (LFC had proposed 4%), plus costs to bring employees up to the new minimums and adjustments for insurance premium increases.

- Categorical and recurring items: The package moves universal school meals into recurring categorical funding (committee staff recommend roughly $55 million recurring), restores transportation adequacy funding, and funds a variety of existing programs (literacy, school leader training, New Mexico-grown foods, assessment fees and grants).

- Public Education Reform Fund and pilots: Staff proposed a $150 million transfer to the Public Education Reform Fund to support three-year pilots, including a proposed $45 million per year innovation zones pilot, $10 million per year for an unhoused students support pilot (the staff proposal would pay selected high school students about $500 per month; $10 million would support ~1,500 students), attendance supports, math-coaching pilots, secondary literacy supports and innovative staffing pilots modeled after promising local efforts.

What the committee did not decide on the floor: some line-item differences remain between LESC staff recommendations, the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) recommendation and the executive branch. Committee staff said they will brief appropriations committees and continue to negotiate with LFC and the administration as bills move through session. Sena noted LESC is scheduled to present its budget recommendations to House Appropriations during the week the legislature opens.

Quotes

"This is not the final version... it'll be done in about a week," John Sena, director of LESC, said about the committee's annual report.

"We actually are introducing provisional licensure for folks, so that they can continue to get trained and then eventually get a professional license," Sena said describing the administrator-licensure approach.

"[The restraint bill] prohibits seclusion outright... you cannot put a kid in a room and lock them in there all day long without supervision," Sena said when describing the restraint-and-seclusion bill.

Ending

The committee's package now moves into the regular legislative process. Several endorsed bills already have sponsors lined up in both chambers, and LESC staff expect to present the committee—udget recommendations to House Appropriations later in the opening week of the legislative session. Staff said several items will require statute and appropriation language to be finalized and that program details for pilots will be worked out administratively if and when funding is approved.