ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO — Childcare workers and advocates asked New Mexico senators on Thursday to keep proposed wage hikes for early childhood educators in the final state budget. They warned that failure to do so could deepen workforce shortages and undermine the state’s push for universal childcare.
At a news conference, advocates said low wages and job insecurity are driving an exodus of educators from the profession, threatening stability for families who depend on childcare services.
Childcare advocates to Senate: Support $60-million funding
“The turnover is costly, not just in the resources needed to recruit and train new staff, but in the disruption it causes for families who need our support,” said Alei Maxson, director of the home-visiting startup La Luz Family.
Education advocates sent a letter to the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday. They urged lawmakers to support a proposed $60 million allocation in House Bill 2 for the New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department. The proposed funding would finance a wage-increase program for educators with higher qualifications.
Magnolia Chavez lamented that childcare workers have been for a long time are “poorly paid and poorly valued.” She operates a home-licensed childcare center in Albuquerque, serving about 15 children of varying ages
“Universal childcare will only work if educators are willing and able to remain in this field,” Chavez said in Spanish. Educators and their families don’t have stability, she added.
Key priority
Childcare is a key priority in the final legislative session of Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. The $11-billion state budget approved by the House this week, however, does not fully fund the governor’s proposal for free universal childcare.
Lawmakers included instead co-payments for higher-income families in the state’s childcare program. The governor opposes this provision.
Lujan Grisham said universal childcare is “not really universally applied” when there is a co-pay. The governor said negotiations with lawmakers remain ongoing as the budget moves through the Senate.