Federal grant boosts pay for 16,000 New Mexico child care workers

Oct. 7—Child care workers across the state are slated to receive pay raises, thanks to a new grant funded by the American Rescue Plan Act.

On Thursday, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced the new Competitive Pay for Professionals Grant, which will increase wages for child care workers to $15 an hour for entry-level employees and $20 an hour for lead teachers.

"Early childhood workers have always been underpaid relative to the importance of the work they do," Lujan Grisham said in a news release. "We need to attract and retain the best talent to ensure the youngest New Mexicans get the high-quality early education they deserve."

The New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department projects the raises will increase pay for about 16,000 employees, ranging from teachers to cooks to bus drivers. The raises will take effect in November.

Early Childhood Education and Care Department Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky said the current pay rate for child care workers starts at about $12 an hour, a wage that is becoming harder to live on as the cost of living rises. She said many child care facilities across the state have struggled to retain staff as workers seek better pay elsewhere.

"We talk to child care providers that have had a wonderful staff person they've been working with for years," Groginsky said. "Maybe a retail store in town is now offering $17 an hour, so if they have a chance to make $5 more an hour, they need to make decisions that benefit their family."

Groginsky said staffing shortages have forced many child care facilities in New Mexico to close their classrooms, but hopes the raises will help them draw in new recruits and keep their current workers, allowing classes to stay open. To qualify for the raises, child care facilities must apply for the grant. Applications are expected to open Nov. 1.

She said the grant will also help bring the state in compliance with the Yazzie/Martinez lawsuit, which found that New Mexico had failed to address the needs of Native Americans, English language learners and disabled and low-income students.

"This opportunity will also support our tribal child care programs and tribal head start programs," Groginsky said. "We want to attract and support a bilingual Indigenous workforce to come into this field, and to do that we need competitive wages."

The grant will use $77 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars to fund the raises for 10 months. Once those funds run out, Groginsky said it will be up to state legislators to allocate funds to ensure these workers keep their raises. She said that the future of the raises will be addressed in the 2023 legislative session, and she expects lawmakers to approve them under the Early Childhood Education and Care Department's four-year finance plan.

Groginsky said she expects legislators to look at increasing pay for child care workers again in 2026, raising the starting rate to $18 an hour.

Some Democratic state legislators expressed support of the new grant during Thursday interviews.

House Education Committee Vice Chair Joy Garratt, D-Albuquerque, called the new grant a "great stopgap measure" as voters prepare to decide on a constitutional amendment on the Nov. 8 ballot to allocate funding to early childhood education from the Land Grant Permanent Fund.

Garratt said she was intimately familiar with the need at private prekindergarten facilities. A family friend, she said, worked at a top child care facility in Albuquerque after attending a college early childhood education program, but left the job to make more money working at a pizza restaurant.

"We lose people who feel called to work with young children but can't afford to stay there," Garratt said. "These funds will help. It still isn't enough, but we'll keep working on it. We need those well-prepared, well-educated educators in place because we've lost too many of them."

House Education Committee member Susan Herrera, D-Embudo, called it a "good move" by the governor to address a significant need in many nonprofit preschool facilities and build upon past funding.

"It's a lot of money," Herrera said, "but the good news is we will have a lot of money next year in the Early Childhood Trust Fund. It will grow substantially over the next five years, so I don't think that will be a problem with recurring revenue."

Herrera said the fund will contain $2 billion this year and $4.8 billion by the end of next year.

Senate Education Committee member Gay Kernan, R-Hobbs, said she believes the governor's move is financially unsustainable.

Kernan said the largest barriers she notices with regard to early childhood education are related not to teacher salaries but to state match formulas for new programs and program expansions through capital outlay. She called the Nov. 8 ballot measure to amend the state Constitution a mistake, saying it would negatively impact the Land Grant Permanent Fund over the long term.

"Frankly, we don't need that money," Kernan said. "Going forward, we'll have the trust fund money — there's a tremendous amount to be used for early childhood."

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