Rally at capital underscores early education funding

January 25, 2011

a swarm of yellow umbrellas in the snow. stuart dyson is at the capitol - to explain what the umbrellas have to do with funding for early childhood education. stu? it's because the people demonstrating want to siphon more money from what they call a rainy day fund - the state's 9 billion dollar land grant permanent fund. and actually it wasn't raining - it was snowing - but the umbrellas came in handy minute thumbnail 05:07 pm anyway. " new mexico has been wise to save and we want that money to work for the little guys !" backers of the proposed constitutional amendment to draw more money from the fund say it's desperately needed to help pre-school children get better prepared for an education system that right now ranks 49th in the nation when it comes to 4th grade reading proficiency. " now is the time - we need to do it now - not later - our children are our future - i'm here for the voice of the children - for the families - for the teachers." " we've got the money in the land grant and a majority of the fund is in education - we just want a piece of it to say early childhood - 'cause that's part of education as well." supporters say they can bump distribution from the fund up to 7 percent from 5 point 8 where its now - without diminishing the fund's core value or taking money away from public schools.