Senate Bill 1 has passed the New Mexico Senate by a unanimous vote, 35 to 0. The new legislation, likely to pass the state’s House of Representatives and subsequently be signed into law by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, will raise teachers’ base salaries statewide on the average by 20 percent.
According to a Saturday, February 5 press release from the governor’s office, “… higher salaries for teachers will increase the average educator salary [in New Mexico] to $64,006, putting the state on par with the national average and ahead of surrounding states.”
According to Business.org teachers make nationwide on the average $63,645 per year. Approximately 80 percent of Americans, however, feel that this amount is not enough.
It also should be noted that Senate Bill 1 has not forgotten New Mexico’s education staff. Under the new legislation, the average salaries of these workers will increase by 7 percent.
New Mexico Wants Qualified Teachers
Attracting qualified teachers to New Mexico is important to Gov. Lujan Grisham and should be important to all New Mexicans. Ensuring that New Mexico pays teachers more than its neighbors is a good way of doing this.
As an example, starting salaries in Texas are in the range of $44,500. With the new legislation currently being considered by state legislators, New Mexico minimum starting salaries will average $50,000. New Mexico teachers will be “the highest-paid individuals in any state near”, Gov. Lujan Grisham is quoted as saying in an U.S. News article.
Senate Bill 1 Sponsors
The proposed legislation that raises New Mexico teachers’ base salaries statewide is co-sponsored by Senate President Pro Tempore Mimi Stewart, (D. – District 17), a retired educator, and Senator Siah Correa Hemphill (D. – District 28), also an educator who has worked as a school psychologist.
Senator Stewart is quoted in an article posted at KOAT.com as saying, “This bill is to recruit teachers, retain them, and respect their profession.”
New Mexico’s Licensing System
New Mexico has a three-tiered licensure system based on the completion of “professional development benchmarks”. Salary levels correlate to the benchmark a teacher has achieved.
New Mexico’s 3-Tiered Performance Evaluation Handbook (PDF) outlines the three tiers. “Level I, a provisional license, is issued for a three year period; Level II, a professional license is issued for up to a nine year period; and Level III-A, a master teacher license, is issued for a nine year period.”
Under Senate Bill 1 minimum teacher salary levels under the three-tier system will be increased to $50,000, $60,000, and $70,000. These salary raises represent a 35 percent increase in base salary levels since Gov. Lujan Grisham took office, says the press release.
Teachers’ Salaries in Lea County
As of January 27 Salary.com reports that the average salary in Hobbs for public school teachers is $54,167. Salary range for Hobbs teachers is listed as from $47,284 to $62,544.
The Lea County Tribune did not find current data for average teachers’ salaries in Lovington,Tatum or Jal.
Since the pay raises provided by Senate Bill 1 “apply equally across the state”, salary levels statewide will be constant. Educators in rural areas, like Lea County, will receive comparable pay to teachers who live in more urban areas, even though the cost of living in these rural areas is, for the most part, less than in more populated regions of the state.
Lea County’s own State Senator Gay Kernan (R. – District 42, includung Chavas, Eddy and Lea counties) told KOAT Action News that Senate Bill 1, if passed, “… will help keep teachers in southeastern New Mexico.” An educator herself, Sen. Kernan stated that “ … districts in the area [southeastern New Mexico] have already been forced to raise teacher salaries to compete with Texas.”
Former Hobbs Municipal School District Superintendent T. J. Parks is remembered as being well aware of the importance of competitive teachers’ salaries, especially when Lea County is vying with salary levels in neighboring states. Parks commented in the Santa Fe New Mexican back in 2016 that money talks when it comes to wooing prospective teachers to work in Hobbs. He remarked that little incentive is provided for them to choose a Lea County school district when they can earn significantly more money working in a school district just across the border in Texas.
Now, approximately seven years later, public school districts in Lea County are still suffering from this exact problem. Hopefully, if and when Senate Bill 1 becomes law, school districts in our county, as well as those in other southeastern New Mexico counties, will offer more competitive salaries and, in turn, better attract and retain qualified educators to bring the best out of area youth.
Photo by the National Cancer Institute // Unsplash
