January 15, 2024

Early childhood department requests $800 million from state budget

The New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department is requesting $800 million for Fiscal Year 2025 from the state budget. The department made its budget request this week to the House Finance and Appropriations Committee this past week. The request would expand childcare assistance eligibility, expand access to high-quality infant and toddler child care, […]

Susan Dunlap

The New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department is requesting $800 million for Fiscal Year 2025 from the state budget.

The department made its budget request this week to the House Finance and Appropriations Committee this past week.

The request would expand childcare assistance eligibility, expand access to high-quality infant and toddler child care, continue expansion of the agency’s pre-K and early pre-K programs and increase state investment in quality and workforce supports, according to a news release.

Bill Jordan, interim co-director and government relations officer for New Mexico Voices for Children, said one of the nonprofit’s legislative priorities for 2024 is to see full funding for early childhood services. He said NMVC doesn’t want to see lawmakers slack off on expanding early childcare services now that the 1.25 percent additional distribution from the Land Grant Permanent Fund is helping to expand ECECD’s services.

After a 10-year fight, a constitutional amendment went before the voters in the state to increase the Land Grant Permanent Fund by 1.25 percent. Some of the additional dollars goes to the Public Education Department but the majority of the money became available to ECECD starting July 1, 2023.

The ECECD’s budget request for FY2025 would provide:

$75 million to maintain expanded child care assistance eligibility and expand access to high-quality care for infants and toddlers through contracted slots
$33 million to serve up to 2,700 additional children in PreK and Early PreK
$30 million to improve quality supports for childcare and PreK, coaching and professional development on early literacy and social and emotional development, and improve the compensation of infant and toddler teachers

General fund special appropriation requests for FY2025 include:

$7 million to increase the number of families participating in evidence-based home visiting that is funded through Medicaid through incentives and a more coordinated intake and referral system
$3 million to increase child care supply through low-interest loans for child care businesses