Santa Fe, NM - Today, House Minority Leader Brian Egolf announced a House Democrat intention to cut programs that support early childhood learning, assist low-income students, fund truancy and dropout prevention programs, and hire social workers to connect kids to needed social and health services.
To justify their call for higher taxes, Egolf and other House Democrats presented a series of doom and gloom pronouncements regarding potential cuts to state government during a press conference on the House floor.
Then in an immediate about-face, they suggested New Mexico cut funding for targeted New Mexico Public Education Department initiatives.
"Reducing expenditures for below-the-line education, those are the Governor and Secretary Skandera's projects that don't affect classroom funding," Egolf said. "There's a variety of things that can be done there."
Here are some of the other "below-the-line" programs that might be cut under Egolf's plan:
- Breakfast for Elementary Students
- Middle School Social Workers
- Public Prekindergarten Fund
- Early Reading Initiative
- K-3 Plus Fund
- Truancy and Dropout Prevention
- Teacher Training, Preparation, Recruitment and Retention
- Teaching Support in Schools with a High Proportion of Low-Income Students
- STEM Programming
- Stipends for Hard to Staff Areas (e.g. Special Education, Bilingual, STEM)
House Democrats don't have a serious plan to pay for state government operations. Instead, they suggest we balance the budget at the expense of New Mexico's children.
The so-called "solutions" House Democrats are proposing would hurt New Mexico families and children.