New Mexican children continue to struggle to read, scoring at or near the bottom of nationwide literacy studies.
Now, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham is proposing an influx of cash into programs designed to improve literacy using techniques growing in popularity nationwide.
On Jan. 18, the governor gave a press conference along with parents, children, educators and officials eager to talk about the effectiveness of structured literacy, a technique teachers and schools have increasingly been using in New Mexico and nationwide in recent years.
The system, also known as the science of reading, relies on systematic instruction in the process of sounding out words, known as phonics. In many places it is replacing techniques that focused more on developing a love of reading.
Sen. William Soules (D-Doña Ana), chair of the Senate Education Committee and a teacher, welcomed the change.
"It's nice to see the science of reading really taking over the teaching of reading," he said. "Unlike language, which is very innate, reading is artificial and it requires specific teaching and training."
He said that now, teachers are receiving professional development training in structured literacy but he wants to see it embedded in teacher training. The governor agreed.
"The sad issue is that New Mexico is waiting a little too long to robustly take the science of reading and make it universal," she said.
She has proposed $58.1 million in her budget, of which $23 million would be recurring funding, to go to the Public Education Department in support of pre-K literacy support, summer reading interventions, and structured literacy training.
The governor is also seeking $30 million for a project called 'Structured Literacy Institute Facilities'. She did not directly answer a question about where such an institute would be but later a spokesperson emailed to say that the Public Education Department received letters of interest from every four-year institution in the state and many two-year institutions interested in becoming home to the institute. The Public Education Department, Higher Education Department, Early Childhood Education and Care Department and the governor’s office are reviewing those proposals now.
It is not clear that the governor's plans would garner support for the full level of suggested funding.
In the Legislative Finance Committee's proposed budget, for instance, the body credited training in the science of reading with a 4% increase in reading proficiency, to 38%. But the budget line for structured literacy projects was only $3 million.
This story has been updated to include more details sent to KUNM by a spokesperson for the governor.
