News

Bill to increase teacher pay in New Mexico clears first hurdle
|
As a first-year teacher in New Mexico earning $32,000 annually before taxes and deductions, Whitney Holland lived in a tiny apartment with a roommate and worked a second job as a nanny on weekends to make ends meet. “It was really, really hard,” said Holland, now president of the American Federation of Teachers New Mexico. “As I look back on that, I know … I wasn’t the best teacher I could have been just because I was trying so hard to kind of keep my head above water,” she added. Holland said a bill the Senate Education Committee unanimously endorsed Wednesday would be “life changing” for teachers in New Mexico.