New Mexico educators recommend expanded career opportunities, more school counselors and better workforce data to help students prepare for employment

Matt Mondschein, Source New Mexico

This article was originally published by Source New Mexico.

A group of New Mexico educators presented policy recommendations last week to improve student job prospects.

The recommendations, presented Monday, Oct, 26, in Albuquerque at Teach Plus New Mexico’s third Statewide Economic Mobility Summit, build on feedback the nonprofit gathered at conferences in Hobbs and Santa Fe last year and include creating more workforce opportunities for students, boosting the student-counselor ratio and improving workforce data collection.

Hope Morales, Teach Plus New Mexico executive director, told Source NM that middle and high school students at both previous conferences expressed the desire for more hands-on learning through internships and more information about job opportunities. The group also recommends boosting the number of school counselors to help students learn about and find those opportunities.

“If counselors have too high a caseload, we’re stretched too thin and not able to guide students in emotional coping strategies and career readiness,” Robert Wiebelhaus, New Mexico’s 2026 school counselor of the year, told Source NM. Teach NM recommended focusing first on schools and communities with the greatest caseloads and opportunity gaps.

According to the American School Counselors Association, New Mexico has a 406-to-1 student-to-counselor ratio. The association recommends a 250-to-1 ratio.

State Sen. William Soules (D-Las Cruces), chair of the Senate Education Committee, attended the summit and told Source NM that New Mexico is “short hundreds of counselors” and the state “ought to be actively recruiting counselors from other states to come to New Mexico while we’re building our counselor program at our schools.” 

The organization also wants New Mexico to make its current state student data program, called Rise NM, more accessible and usable by educators in the classroom. Rise NM links records from the Public Education Department, Higher Education Department, Workforce Solutions, Early Childhood Education and Care Department and the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation to track student outcomes from K-12 to the workforce. 

The group said the program’s information can be fragmented because of limited teacher and counselor input, particularly in historically underserved communities, making it difficult for educators, policymakers and communities to understand what is working. 

In an emailed statement, Public Education Department spokesperson  Janelle Taylor García said PED “welcomes the perspectives of students, educators and community partners brought together by Teach Plus.” The three recommendations reflect a shared goal between the department and Teach Plus: “ensuring every New Mexico student has a clear path to continued education, meaningful employment and economic opportunity,” she said.

“We’re not recommending that we start over,” Morales said. “We’re recommending that we strengthen what exists and ensure that the information that we are collecting is accessible, meaningful and actually used to improve decisions and student outcomes.”

Matt Mondschein is a native Las Vegan and previously interned with Nevada Current, part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.