EDUCATION
Lawmakers push for paid parental leave for teachers
Left out of a policy guaranteeing parental leave to state workers, New Mexico teachers who have children must use their own vacation or sick pay
Published
New Mexico teachers are left out of a policy guaranteeing paid parental leave to state employees. Some state legislators hope this will change next year.
Without paid maternity leave, teachers who have children are forced to use their sick time or vacation days, or try to time their childbirth with summer vacation 鈥� a task that can be difficult to impossible, said Whitney Holland, president of the New Mexico chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, the second-largest labor union in the 近距离内射合集 States.
鈥淚t really makes educators choose their students or their own personal children, and this would open the door to say they don鈥檛 have to make that choice,鈥� Holland said. 鈥淓ducation is a female-dominated profession, so it just naturally makes sense to do something that helps moms.鈥�
, introduced last session by Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, would have guaranteed up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave to school employees and appropriated $7.5 million from the general fund to reimburse schools for long-term substitute teachers. The bill was introduced late in the legislative session and did not receive a hearing.
During a meeting of the Legislative Education Study Committee on Thursday in Taos, Shannon Holston of the National Council on Teacher Quality extolled the benefits of paid parental leave for teachers.
Around 15% of teachers leave the profession because of family reasons, Holston said, and the rough cost for larger districts to replace one teacher who leaves is $25,000.
鈥淧aid parental leave is not only good for teachers, but it鈥檚 good for students in keeping good teachers in the classroom,鈥� Holston said.
Nationwide, more than three-quarters of public school teachers are female, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, though Holston proposed that New Mexico extend the benefits to nonbirthing parents, including fathers, adoptive parents and foster parents.
Two states 鈥� Delaware and Arkansas 鈥� guarantee 12 weeks of paid parental leave for teachers, and 16 states require districts to offer paid leave for new parents.
鈥淚 really think it鈥檚 kind of the next step for recruiting and retaining teachers,鈥� Stewart said. 鈥淚 want people to look at the simplicity of this and the importance of it.鈥�
New Mexico has 640 teacher vacancies, Stewart said.
Rep. John Block, R-Alamogordo, said he was concerned about the solvency of the state鈥檚 general fund and its oil and gas revenue, which New Mexico is using to help fund universal child care, among other initiatives, and which could pay for the teacher leave.
鈥淲e just keep on spending money on free stuff,鈥� Block said. 鈥淲hen we do hit that cliff, when we do say, 鈥極K, we鈥檙e going to totally annihilate oil and gas revenue,鈥� which is the goal of many people in the Legislature, I hope that they have a mechanism to actually pay for it.鈥�
Allowing teachers paid parental leave would give them parity with other state employees, who already get the benefit, said LESC Director John Sena, who called the matter an 鈥渆quity issue.鈥�
School employees were also left out of a policy guaranteeing that state employees would have at least 80% of their health insurance premiums paid for by their employer until a bill changed the rule this last legislative session.
Teaching is unique in that other jobs don鈥檛 typically require full-time substitutes when employees take leave, Holston said.
鈥淭hey care for other people鈥檚 children,鈥� Holston said. 鈥淚f we鈥檙e going to offer it to anybody, we should be offering it to teachers.鈥�
Natalie Robbins covers education for the Journal. You can reach her at nrobbins@abqjournal.com.
