| | | | |  | | By Mackenzie Wilkes | With help from Michael Stratford PROGRAMMING NOTE: We'll be off for Thanksgiving this Thursday and Friday but back to our normal schedule on Monday, Nov. 28. 'TRANSFORMATIONAL POLICY' FOR EARLY LEARNING — A stream of funding for early childhood education is coming to the Land of Enchantment. — New Mexico voters overwhelmingly approved an amendment this month to the state constitution that would allow 1.25 percent in additional distributions from the state's land grant permanent fund to go toward education. In 2023, the additional distributions would be over $211 million. — Sixty percent of the additional funds would be for early childhood education and 40 percent would be for teacher pay, extending the school year and instruction for at-risk students.
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New Mexico's Constitutional Amendment 1, which got the approval of voters, will allow additional funds for early childhood education and teacher pay. | AP Photo | — But there's another hurdle — Congress. The federally established fund, which is valued at $21.6 billion, requires congressional approval for any changes. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) introduced a bill authorizing the distribution back in December 2021 and it has since passed in committee. Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), who introduced the House version of the bill , urged her colleagues on the House floor Thursday to "pass this concurring language now without delay and invest in New Mexico, our children and our future." — With 70 percent of voters approving the amendment , Amber Wallin, executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children, said it signaled that "folks really want kids to be a priority in policy decisions. Voters really want child-focused policy to be high on policymaker's agenda and to be a really high priority in the budgets." — Wallin added: "It means that our classrooms will be better resourced and the teachers and early childhood educators now can also support their families, have the wages to support their families, while they're helping raise the next generation of New Mexicans," she said. "The most important part is really what this means to our families, to our kids, to our workforce, and it's impossible to overstate what transformational policy this is for them." — New Mexico is the latest state to approve an early childhood education ballot initiative. Colorado's universal preschool program begins next school year, and part of the funding was approved by a 2020 ballot measure. The program is funded partially by a nicotine tax approved by voters. Next fall, Colorado 4-year-olds will be eligible for at least 10 hours of free preschool a week. Florida, Oklahoma and Vermont also have universal pre-k programs. — Two different streams : In addition to approving Amendment 1, voters also approved over $215 million in bonds for improvements at higher education institutions. Additional funds from the land grant permanent fund and through bonds is "a really good example of the state legislature putting two initiatives forward to diversify the revenue streams for education," according to Damion Pechota, a senior policy analyst at the Education Commission of the States. IT'S MONDAY, NOV. 21. WELCOME TO WEEKLY EDUCATION. Have we met? Let's chat. Reach me at mwilkes@politico.com . Send tips to my colleagues Bianca Quilantan at bquilantan@politico.com , Juan Perez Jr. at jperez@politico.com and Michael Stratford at mstratford@politico.com . And follow us on Twitter: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro .
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| | Child care and early childhood education | | CHILD CARE AGENDA — As some states make moves on early learning, some child care facilities are faced with staff shortages. The number of child care workers is down by 88,000 individuals between February 2020 and October 2022, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics . — Child care facilities are struggling to pay workers competitive wages to retain staff without raising costs for families, according to Lauren Hogan, managing director of policy and professional advancement at the National Association for the Education of Young Children. — "The most common thing they pointed, unsurprisingly, is that they needed competitive wages and neither programs or families can afford to provide that in their own right, they need additional help," Hogan said. "There's no way for families to individually afford the cost of early childhood education." — President Joe Biden has touted several early learning and child care proposals in his American Families Plan including universal preschool, which were booted from the reconciliation bill earlier this year. — Senate HELP Chair Patty Murray told POLITICO she was "disappointed" that child care funding didn't make it into reconciliation but that it's still a "top priority" and "an issue people vote on and that will have an impact on our ability to get something done here." Murray, who announced she wants to head the appropriations committee next year, said she brought up child care with Biden when he called to congratulate her on winning reelection. — Sarah Rittling, executive director of First Five Years Fund, an organization advocating for investments in early childhood education, said they're pushing for bipartisan agreement on childcare in the lame-duck session. — Rittling said the "level of prioritization that [child care issues] received from the president in the American Families Plan all the way through, Build Back Better and then, unfortunately, not making its way into reconciliation," emphasizes the need for bipartisan prioritization.
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President Joe Biden speaks about the student debt relief portal beta test in the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex in Washington. | Susan Walsh/AP Photo | BIDEN ADMIN TELLS MILLIONS THEY ARE APPROVED FOR STUDENT DEBT RELIEF — The Biden administration has begun began notifying millions of federal student loan borrowers it had approved their applications for debt relief — even as the program remains in legal limbo. — The notices started going out to borrowers over the weekend. They followed the Justice Department's emergency request on Friday for the Supreme Court to intervene and allow the administration to move ahead with the debt relief program that has been blocked by lower courts. — "Your application is complete and approved, and we will discharge your approved debt if and when we prevail in court," said the emails to borrowers signed by Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO . — Cardona said in the email to borrowers that "lawsuits" have "blocked our ability to discharge your debt at present." — The notices are the latest effort by the Biden administration to pin blame on GOP officials and conservative groups for preventing millions of Americans from receiving the student debt relief Biden promised in August. — An Education Department spokesperson confirmed that the agency would be sending notices to the approximately 16 million borrowers who it approved for debt relief in the weeks before court orders grounded the program to a halt. — What's next: The Biden administration's request to the Supreme Court on Friday was sent to Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who oversees emergency matters from the 8th Circuit. Kavanaugh has asked the Republican attorneys general who are suing to stop debt relief to respond to the Biden administration's request by this Wednesday at noon.
| | | AIDING UNDOCUMENTED STUDENTS — Undocumented Arizona high school students will be eligible to receive in-state college tuition after voters approved a ballot measure this month. Arizona voters narrowly approved Proposition 308 by a roughly 2 percent margin . Regardless of immigration status, students who attended high school for two years in the state are eligible for in-state tuition and financial aid. — Financial aid and in-state tuition have been put up to vote before. In 2006, Arizona voters overwhelmingly voted to bar undocumented people from accessing public assistance programs, including in-state tuition and financial aid. — With this victory for pro-immigration policy in Arizona, advocates are pushing for movement on federal legislation for Dreamers. Following the approval of Proposition 308, the President's Alliance for Higher Education and Immigration called on Congress to act on legislation for Dreamers and undocumented students. — "We must also note that this victory does not absolve Congress from the need to act. Congress needs to pass a permanent, legislative solution before the end of this year to ensure Dreamers and other undocumented students have an opportunity to stay in the U.S.," Christian Penichet-Paul, director of the alliance's higher ed immigration portal and state policy, said in a statement. — Over 200 organizations sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer last week urging Congress to pass legislation on DACA in the lame-duck session. From the letter: "We cannot let this Congress pass and leave the future of DACA up to a potentially GOP-controlled House and conservative-controlled Supreme Court, the time is now."
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