New Mexico's literacy institute may be years away. But in the meantime, the PED is forging ahead with another program.

Apr. 11—While a big part of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's literacy goals for this year — a building dedicated to bringing the science of reading to New Mexico's students and teachers — may still be years away, the state Public Education Department is forging ahead with another of her goals.

Lawmakers this legislative session appropriated $30 million in capital outlay dollars for the governor's literacy institute, a project she announced last year as a way of building momentum on lagging reading proficiency levels across the state.

Last school year, New Mexico students' reading scores improved from the year before by 4 percentage points to about 38%.

While this year's appropriation paved the way for the literacy institute, a project that had stalled without legislative approval, the building is still far from fruition.

Education Secretary Arsenio Romero said the PED, alongside the state Higher Education Department, has resumed looking through proposals from higher education institutions, and aims to have a site for the building selected by mid-summer.

"We just want to really gauge what is already available out there, so that we can make this $30 million go as far as possible," Romero told the Journal.

But beyond that, it could be years before the building is complete.

In the meantime, the PED is forging ahead with Lujan Grisham's summer reading program, which aims to serve some 10,000 struggling students throughout the state.

That program also received a $30 million legislative appropriation, this time through the state budget bill.

For the program, Romero said the department is shooting for a 4-to-1 student-teacher ratio, meaning it needs 2,500 literacy instructors.

People eligible for that job can include current or retired educators, school faculty or pre-service educators, who would be trained before the start of the program.

Instructors would need to be available to work at least 25 hours per week and will be paid at $35 per hour.

The programs would last four to six weeks, Romero said, and would roughly start in June.

The PED is aiming at enrolling students entering kindergarten all the way through students leaving the eighth grade. Students would be in class four hours per day, five days per week, Romero said.

The idea for the summer reading program, Romero said, is to hold lessons in classrooms in schools throughout the state.

That said, he noted that virtual options would be available for students who need them, including those who live in rural areas far from school buildings.

Through tests at the start and end of the programs, Romero said the state aims to track students' growth throughout them, which would then be provided to families and the students' schools.

"When this challenge came from the governor, this was a big challenge, and we are doing a lot of work really fast to make this happen," Romero said. "And I'm really excited because it's all becoming a reality now."