Study Finds New Mexico Education Results Have Stagnated Despite Rapid Spending Growth: Alternatives Needed

(Albuquerque) New Mexico has seen a variety of educational reforms over the years. In fact, the one constant in New Mexico education has been constant reform. Unfortunately, as a new study by Rio Grande Foundation scholar Harry Messenheimer, PhD, illustrates, New Mexico’s reforms have done little to improve educational results.

In fact, using testing data from the respected National Assessment of Educational Progress as well as budget data from both the State of New Mexico and the federal government, Messenheimer shows that New Mexico’s rapidly increasing investment in K-12 education has failed to generate better results.

Results from the NAEP, which assesses 4th and 8th graders in reading, math, and science, show that New Mexico students have fallen further behind their peers nationwide than when testing began. This, despite years of “reform” and increasing spending.

Since 1989, K-12 spending has risen by 34 percent in real terms (adjusted for inflation and population) and gone from middle-of-the pack regionally to surpassing all other states in the region (Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah). As Dr. Messenheimer points out, “Clearly, more spending is not the long-term answer to New Mexico’s education woes.”

While many studies focus only on New Mexico’s long track record of educational underachievement, Messenheimer analyzes ways to reform the system that will actually work. Using a statistical technique known as regression, Messenheimer finds that creating choices for parents and students within the educational system will improve outcomes.

As Messenheimer writes, “The best way to increase parental involvement in their children’s education is to give them choices. One means of creating choice in New Mexico would be to allow individuals and businesses to take credits against their state tax bill for donations made to scholarship organizations that enable parents and students to choose the educational path that works for them.”

Legislation that would have created such a system of tax credits passed the New Mexico Senate in 2007. Similar legislation will be introduced in the 2008 session. The full study is available on the Rio Grande Foundation’s website at: http://www.riograndefoundation.org/downloads/rgf_education_study.pdf.