Nov. 15—SANTA FE — The New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD) announced that it has awarded $7 million in endowment grants to seven colleges and universities to strengthen the pipeline for a diverse and credentialed early childhood workforce.

According to a news release from the ECECD the grants will support early childhood degree programs across New Mexico and aid in the recruitment of students from Indigenous and bilingual communities into early childhood degree programs.

The funds will be used to set up endowments, hire additional faculty and staff, add courses focused on multicultural early childhood education, and implement teacher recruitment strategies to increase diversity.

ECECD Cabinet Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky said, "These new early childhood endowments are part of our strategy to attract a diverse pool of talent to the early childhood profession and support them in their pursuit of degrees and credentials."

Ensuring that tribal and bilingual communities in New Mexico have highly trained early childhood professionals with relevant cultural and linguistic knowledge is a key part of reversing entrenched educational inequities within New Mexico.

According to the release, funding for the grants was approved by Gov. Lujan Grisham as part of ECECD's budget during the 2021 legislative session. The recipients of the endowment grants include:

— $458,000 for Eastern New Mexico University

Funding will be used to establish an endowed professorship focused on research and recruitment specific to early childhood education, help to increase recruitment of culturally and linguistically diverse students, and expand research on multicultural early childhood interventions, education, and development.

— $1.187 million for New Mexico State University

Funding will be used to support the addition of two new graduate assistant positions which will work collaboratively with stakeholders in early childhood education educator programs.

— $1.187 million University of New Mexico

Funding will be used to support endowed faculty to the Early Childhood Education Program, increase student recruitment and expand funding into new areas of specialty.