Advocates calling for teacher pay hikes have reason to celebrate.
The House of Representatives voted unanimously late Monday to approve Senate Bill 1, which would increase the minimum wage at each level of the state's three-tier teacher licensing system to $10,000. The measure is a strategy aimed at addressing crisis-level teacher shortages throughout New Mexico.
SB1 now goes to Government Michelle Lujan Grisham, who quickly put his support behind the law. She called it the biggest teacher pay hike in recent years and announced after a House vote that she planned to sign the bill into law.
This means that starting teachers' salaries will increase from $40,000 to $50,000, while mid-level teachers will see a base salary increase of $50,000 to $60,000. Teachers at the highest level will be paid at least $70,000, which is now more than $60,000.
Higher salaries will also have an impact on the salaries of principals and assistant principals.
Public Education Secretary Kurt Steinhaus said Tuesday that legislative action could help fill a shortage of more than 1,000 teachers across the state.
"I've already had some teachers contact me who were originally planning to retire this year, and they've changed their mind," he said. "They'll stick with it."
Lawmakers in the Senate unanimously approved the bill on February 5.
Legislators' support for the initiative, Steinhaus said, "shows a vote of confidence for the professionals we have on the front lines teaching students every day."
SB1 was one of two measures to ensure that all public school teachers see significant growth in the next fiscal year, which begins on July 1. House Bill 2, the state budget bill, includes a 7 percent increase for all state workers, including teachers. Teachers whose salary increases by more than 7 percent through SB 1 will not get additional incentives.
Money will make a difference, at least in the short term, said Stan Rounds, executive director of the New Mexico Coalition of Educational Leaders and a former superintendent in Las Cruces.
Considering some neighboring states, such as Colorado and Texas, pay teachers several thousand dollars more annually than New Mexico, Rounds said, "this puts us in better competition with the surrounding states."
He said he could look to Texas, in turn, trying to "out" New Mexico with teacher pay.
Still, he called the legislature's action "an aggressive move" when it comes to the recruitment and retention of teachers.
Whitney Holland, president of the American Federation of Teachers New Mexico, wrote in an email Tuesday that "the potential impact of SB1 on the state's education workforce is hard to describe."
"Already, individual teachers are speaking out about what this increase in compensation will mean for them and their families," Holland wrote. “On a statewide level, we see SB1 as an important step in retaining the experienced teachers that our schools desperately need and showing potential teachers that New Mexico can make our state a safe place to become teachers. And is serious about creating a rewarding spot."
Before the COVID-19 pandemic engulfed New Mexico and changed the way the state delivered public education, schools were grappling with a shortage of teachers. Most experts agree that the pandemic has exacerbated the long-standing problem.
A RAND Corp survey of teachers in 2020 reported that one-quarter of them planned to leave the profession by the end of the school year.
The report said that before the pandemic, this figure was 1 in 6 teachers.
Rounds said he isn't sure that one-time growth will play a role in future recruitment and retention success rates.
Noting that there are now "not many people who want to be teachers" in the state, he said, "the problem is not solved overnight."
But, he added, "it will do fine for a few years."