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Legislators Discuss Education Funding Amid Budget Shortfall

New Mexico is currently facing a budget shortfall of close to $200 million dollars for the fiscal year that ended in June, and revenues for next year could be $300 million to $500 million dollars less than expectations.

New Mexico Senate Democrats have said they would not support any cuts to education funding. Democratic Senator Bill Soules says education is an investment the state needs to make.

“When we had the big downturn back in ’08 and ’09 most of that burden was born by public schools and high education,” Soules said. “This last budget, a huge portion of that was born by higher education. And in fact, teacher’s salaries, education budgets have been slipping further and further compared to what other states are. If we really are going to be making investments in our future, we need to make sure we’re investing in education, which is our long-term exit out of being reliant on just oil and natural gas.”

Republican Representative Dennis Roch says he also supports protecting education funding from cuts, along with many members of the Legislative Education Committee.

“I think you heard both republicans and democrats at the committee today,” Roch said. “Say that we very much want to protect education funding, and funding for schools. I think that partly is a reflection of the education committee and our commitment to make sure high-quality schools are available to all kids.”

Roch says education is an essential service that government provides.

“Education is one of those foundational things that government provides,” Roch said. “And when budgets get tight, it’s our job, to prioritize essential services, the things that we need to have like education, health care, emergency services, maybe cut back on the things that are just nice to have, but if you don’t have the money those are the things that get cut.”

Senator Soules says funding education can help raise revenue in the future.

“I think we need to do that if we really are going to make long term changes,” Soules said. “And that’s assuming that the only thing we’re going to be looking at is how we are going to cut. I think somebody said that amputating your arm in order to fix your budget isn’t a good way of doing things, and if we’re really going to look at everything, we have to look at some of the revenue enhancement kinds of things as well. That all I hope will all be on the table, and we all will have an opportunity to participate in that, rather than here it is, sign on or don’t.”

Education funding accounts for approximately 57% of New Mexico’s overall budget.

Samantha Sonner was a multimedia reporter for KRWG- TV/FM.