New Mexico teacher vacancy rate drops nearly 40 percent but remains high

Oct. 11—When lawmakers advocated to raise teachers' pay this year, they said it would attract more people to the profession and retain those currently working in schools — a necessary measure to address the 1,048 vacancies the state was facing.

Based on a new report on teacher vacancy rates in New Mexico, they may have been right.

New Mexico has 690 teacher vacancies this year, according to the 2022 New Mexico Educator Vacancy Report, a significant drop from a year ago when many experts were predicting dire times in the state's K-12 schools.

That report, compiled and produced by the Southwest Outreach Academic Research Evaluation and Policy Center of New Mexico State University, used job posting data from each of the state's 89 school districts regarding "verified openings" as of Sept. 10.

The report also says more students are enrolling in state teacher preparation programs, with 1,886 admitted in the 2021-22 academic year and 1,027 students completing the work. Admissions were up by 290 and completions by 48.

"Teaching is back," said Rick Marlatt, interim director of the School for Teacher Preparation, Administration and Leadership at New Mexico State's College of Health, Education and Social Transformation.

"The salary increases have been huge [in filling teacher vacancies]," he said. "They can only help when we are talking about the number of students we used to lose to Texas, Colorado, Arizona, where they could get paid more."

Thanks to Senate Bill 1 — which earned unanimous support from the Senate and House of Representatives and was signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham — new teachers saw their base salary rise from $40,000 to $50,000 this school year, while middle-tier teachers saw a jump in the base pay from $50,000 to $60,000.

Teachers at the third and highest tier now are paid at least $70,000, a boost from $60,000.

Sen. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, who co-sponsored SB 1, said Monday the raises had the intended effect.

"The salary increases have been the reason people are coming back to teach, coming back to New Mexico, coming out of retirement to teach," she said. "I think it's the reason we are seeing such a huge uptick now."

Whitney Holland, president of the American Federation of Teachers New Mexico, agreed salaries played a big role in wooing retired teachers back into the profession. She said other factors, including Lujan Grisham's successful push for free college tuition for eligible residents, might be bolstering the ranks of those going into teacher preparation programs in state colleges.

Holland and Marlatt said a bill providing stipends for a teacher residency program that pairs college seniors with mentor teachers also helps. Marlatt said the program requires students to commit to three years working in the district where they conduct their residency.

Not all the news from the report is positive. Overall, the state is still shy 1,344 people — including educational assistants, paraprofessionals, counselors, administrators, instructional coaches and others.

Though the 690 vacancy rate is a 34 percent drop from last year's rate, it is higher than the 571 teacher vacancies reported in 2020 — the first year of the pandemic — and the 644 reported in 2019.

Some state leaders and educators said the surge in vacancy rates last year was generated at least in part by the coronavirus pandemic, which led teachers who were eligible to retire early to do just that and sent others out of a profession that became difficult to master during health care orders.

The state is still short 446 educational/instructional assistants, the report said. Marlatt said that could be because some of those professionals moved into teaching positions, reducing the number of teacher vacancies as a result.

Stewart said she plans to push for raising the salary of educational assistants, as well as other positions, in the coming legislative session, scheduled to begin in mid-January.

Within the teaching profession, the greatest need is for special education teachers, with 193 vacancies — about 28 percent of the total teacher vacancy rate.

Marlatt said New Mexico's shortage probably mirrors national trends. Earlier this year the National Center for Education Statistics said 44 percent of public schools were reporting at least one teacher vacancy, if not more, and of those schools, 45 percent reported vacancies among special education teachers.

He added special education teachers face a number of challenges atop those faced by other educators, including "additional statutes and mandates on the federal and state and district level. ... Often they don't get the support they need in order to learn those procedures, often they don't have seasoned mentors to model their practice after. It's a tough job."

Holland said special education teacher shortages have been a "systemic" problem for years. Though she said she could not provide specifics, she said she expects educators and lawmakers to work on legislation to help fill special ed gaps in the coming session.

The report said Santa Fe Public Schools had 123 teacher vacancies and Albuquerque Public Schools had 159 vacancies as of Sept. 10.

Sen. Gay Kernan, R-Hobbs, said Monday the report is "encouraging" and helps schools keep classroom sizes manageable.

"I do think salaries make a difference," Kernan said.

The Legislative Education Study Committee, scheduled to meet over the course of three days later this week, will likely take up the report's findings during a Wednesday afternoon discussion of educator workforce supply and demand, Stewart said.