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This funding formula change will demand more resources and I support it. But an investment of this size deserves the direct approval of the voters.
We will continue to invest in Pre-Kindergarten because we've already seen the achievement gap begin to close—as young graduates from every background-disadvantaged or English-language learners—enter school ready to learn.
And in order to improve student achievement in mathematics, I'm proposing that we increase the math requirement for new elementary and middle school teachers.
Teacher training days are vital to improving our teachers' skills, but they should never reduce a student's time to learn. In some cases students are actually in school only 165 days a year. I’m proposing legislation tightening the school calendar to make sure our students receive a full 180 days of instruction.
Once our students graduate from high school, we can't let hard economic times stop qualified students from going to college. That's why I want to continue our zero-percent tuition credit policy and hold down rising tuition costs.
Next, I'm proposing that we change the College Affordability Fund and the 3% scholarships fund to direct 100 percent of their grants to students with financial need.
Meanwhile our state still has an urgent need for healthcare professionals in our rural and underserved communities. That's why we must continue to offer scholarships to attract and retain dentists, doctors and nurses, and tax breaks to encourage speech and physical therapists, as well as social workers to practice in rural areas.
And we should find a fiscally responsible way to assure that this city continues to host a four-year college, like the College of Santa Fe, to inspire and educate our next generation of actors and artists, painters and public servants.
Beyond educating our future workforce, it's critical that we treat our current workforce with fairness and equity.
I've appointed women and minorities to top posts in my Cabinet, on boards and commissions and am proud to serve side by side with the first woman Lt. Governor of New Mexico. This fall, my administration commissioned a leading expert, Dr. Martha Burk, to survey six state agencies, and evaluate if state government pays men and women equitably. She found that while nationally, women make 77 cents to every dollar a man makes-the pay gaps in our departments were less than the national average.
And in both number and size--- most gender wage gaps favored…..women.
It's time to go further.
This week, I will sign a new executive order creating a Task Force on Fair and Equal Pay. This task force will look for ethnic, racial and gender gaps as well as job segregation in every state agency, and offer solutions for closing those gaps.
If we are to be fair in how we treat our workers, then we must also be fair in how we treat our families, and fully extend domestic partnership rights. Two people, who agree to spend their lives committed to each other, deserve to have the same legal protections for their families, as any other.
As a minority-majority state, where we celebrate diversity, we should never accept discrimination, on any basis, for any reason, period.
The third part of my Economic Security plan is to expand our role as an innovation state.
