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NEA: Martinez Administration Move Will Cost New Mexico Schools Millions

NM Education Secretary Hanna Skandera

  Commentary:  The New Mexico Public Education Department (NM PED) recently instituted a major “administrative” change in how Special Education and many other services are delivered to New Mexico students most in need of mental health and other “ancillary” services. 

 

“Students are at the heart of all we do in our advocacy and in the schools, so we are very upset at how these administrative changes will negatively impact the provision of many needed “ancillary” services in New Mexico schools,” says Betty Patterson, NEA-NM President.  “These actions appear to be a way to “pull back” money from school districts and, therefore, demonstrates the PED is once again failing to live up to its political claims about putting students first.”

 

The New Mexico School Superintendents Association expressed concerns about this maneuver in a recent letter to PED Secretary Skandera.  Pointing out their disappointment, the Association says they are “very dissatisfied with the manner in which these audits are being conducted,” and “the methodology … will mean a reduction of services to children and certainly means major cuts to already austere budgets… Superintendents are bracing themselves for an onslaught of lawsuits from both special education parents and advocacy groups.”  Districts had no input in the changes.

 

The NM PED Special Education Bureau revised the “audit tool” to determine the Full Time Equivalence (FTE) of ancillary staff (SLPs and audiologists).  This revised tool omits several job duties in addition to direct service (i.e., evaluation of students, prevention, Individual Education Plan (IEP) meetings, documentation, travel between school sites, consultation/collaboration/counseling and education).

 

The New Mexico chapter of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association says “the collective impact across the State will result in a significant decrease in the number of ancillary staff positions funded.  This change will increase caseload/workload for all ancillary staff positions and may shift how services are currently being provided.”

 

NEA-NM and other education partners are also concerned the PED change could also impact the State of New Mexico’s maintenance of effort (MOE) calculations, thus endangering federal funding for New Mexico students.    

 

NEA-New Mexico calls on Secretary Skandera to immediately withdraw the new PED administrative maneuver and to involve the superintendents and other important education community groups in a working group to identify issues and problems –to determine a method for counting ancillary staff and account for services in a manner which does no further harm to New Mexico students.