Cabinet Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky

ECECD News:

SANTA FE — The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) released its annual “State of PreK Yearbook” report that analyzes and ranks state preschool programs, giving New Mexico top marks for its progress towards establishing free, universal PreK and the state’s significant investments in early education.

The report ranks New Mexico in the top 10 states for PreK for 4-year-olds and 13^th for 3-year-olds, with the state meeting nine out of 10 benchmarks for PreK quality.

“When I took office, I promised to deliver free, universal PreK for New Mexico families,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said. “We’ve made incredible progress by increasing access to early education, raising teacher salaries, and funding the largest PreK expansion in our state’s history. These investments establish New Mexico as a leader in early education. This is the solid foundation children in New Mexico deserve so they can learn, grown and thrive in the future.”

Since the beginning of the Lujan Grisham administration, New Mexico has taken significant strides to improve access to high-quality PreK in school based, community-based, family childcare, and Head Start programs.  

Since 2018, New Mexico has:

• Boosted PreK enrollment from 10,989 in FY19 to 14,183 in FY22;
• Increased full-day PreK by 25 percentage points (from 53 to 81 percent);
• Created a PreK Pay Parity program that compensates credentialed community based PreK educators similarly to PreK educators in school-based classrooms; and
• Enacted a historic $109 million expansion of New Mexico PreK to improve PreK teacher compensation, increase instructional hours, and expand access to thousands of children across the state. 

“New Mexico has a historic and generational opportunity to build an early education and care system that meets families’ needs and supports healthy growth and development for children,” said Cabinet Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky for the New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department. “High-quality PreK supports young children’s learning and social emotional development skills and prepares them for kindergarten and beyond.

A copy of the NIEER State of Preschool 2022 report is available at nieer.org