{"id":128353,"date":"2016-02-16T21:12:17","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T04:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=128353"},"modified":"2016-02-16T21:12:19","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T04:12:19","slug":"state-racing-clock-to-avoid-loss-of-millions-in-federal-special-ed-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/02\/state-racing-clock-to-avoid-loss-of-millions-in-federal-special-ed-funds\/","title":{"rendered":"State racing clock to avoid loss of millions in federal special-ed funds"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mimi<\/a>

Clyde Mueller \/ The New Mexican<\/p>

Sen. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, at her seat on the New Mexico senate floor Monday. The senator says she is “very frustrated that they [PED] think they have solved everything” needed to prevent the loss of at least $34 million in federal special-education funding, “but the United States Department of Education is not willing to say anything about it.”<\/p><\/div>\n

Time and money are both running out as state education officials try to broker a deal with the U.S. government by the end of the legislative session, at noon Thursday, to prevent the loss of at least $34 million in federal funding for special-education programs.<\/p>\n

The pact, which state Public Education Secretary Hanna Skandera said she negotiated with the U.S. Department of Education earlier this month, calls for the state to invest an additional $9 million a year over the next five years — $45 million in all — into its special-education programs in lieu of future federal grant cuts. The state faces the funding cuts as a penalty for failing to invest enough of its own money in the programs in years past.<\/p>\n