New Mexico
New Mexico Receives Federal Grant For Statewide Teacher Residencies
The grant, part of the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) Education Innovation and Research Program, will provide much-needed research, infrastructure and implementation support for NM Residencies.
NM Residencies has three primary goals:
Strengthen the teacher recruitment and selection processes to attract, prepare and retain a strong teaching force that reflects the state’s student population.
Build consistency across residencies to ensure equitable access to well-prepared teachers.
Create sustainable funding streams with competitive wages so paid residencies can grow and become the norm in New Mexico.
Studies of teacher residency programs consistently point to the high retention rates of their graduates, showing 80% to 90% of graduates remaining in the same district after three years and 70% to 80% remaining in the same district after five years.[1]
By increasing the number of qualified teachers in the educator workforce and providing existing educators with aspiring teachers to help share classroom responsibilities, NM Residencies also contributes to the NMPED’s goal of reducing classroom sizes and teacher workloads.
“Having aspiring teachers observe and assist experienced teachers benefits everyone in the education process,” said New Mexico Public Education Secretary Arsenio Romero. “We are grateful for the opportunity to advance this program and further develop a coherent, high-quality teacher preparation system.”
NMPED is one of only three mid-phase grantees in the nation awarded under the ED’s Educator Recruitment and Retention priority.
The grant, which is housed in the NMPED’s Educator Quality and Ethics Division, will develop open-source resources to be shared nationally. In addition, Basis Policy Research will conduct an external evaluation, the findings of which will be disseminated widely.
“New Mexico is a national leader in supporting shifts in the teacher preparation ecosystem so that people can afford to attend high-quality teacher residencies. These federal grants are highly competitive; this award recognizes the quality and potential of NM Residencies to inform the field more broadly,” said Karen DeMoss, Executive Director of Prepared To Teach, a national organization working to make paid residencies the norm for teacher preparation and a collaborator on the NM Residencies project.
The NM Residencies program and the NMPED’s collaboration with the ED are part of Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s ongoing efforts to increase teacher recruitment and retention across New Mexico.
Legislative funding signed by the governor in 2022 provided stipends of $35,000 for aspiring teachers in state-approved residencies to address the cost-barrier that many aspiring teachers faced when choosing a preparation pathway. As a result, enrollment in teacher residencies is growing. Over half the districts in New Mexico have hosted residents, and 92% of residents graduate on time. Two-thirds of residents also identify as persons of color, compared to 46% of the state’s current teachers.
The contents of this press release were developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Program. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government. Total project costs over the 5-year grant period, including stipends for more than 2200 residents, are estimated at $68,525,450. Federal funding of $7,772,426 will cover 13% of these total costs; the remaining 87% of costs totaling $60,753,024 are anticipated to be covered through state and local dollars.
[1] New findings on the retention of novice teachers from teaching residency programs (ed.gov)
Research Report: The Teacher Residency: An Innovative Model for Preparing Teachers (learningpolicyinstitute.org)
SANTA FE, N.M. – Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham asked Attorney General Raúl Torrez to investigate whether any Drug Enforcement Administration agents broke state law when pills reached New Mexico streets.
In a statement, Lujan Grisham said, “make no mistake: the DEA knew people would die if these pills made it into New Mexico communities.”
The governor also shared a timeline from 2022 to 2025 that she said shows when she asked federal officials for help with New Mexico’s fentanyl crisis and violent crime.
Lujan Grisham said the first request came on June 21, 2022, when she wrote to then-Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray and asked for 50 additional federal agents.
She said she wrote to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland on Sept. 15, 2022, asking for more agents, resources and support for New Mexico law enforcement.
Lujan Grisham said she wrote Garland a second time on Aug. 8, 2023, with the same request.
What came next?
About a month later, Lujan Grisham said she sent Garland a third letter and said New Mexico needed more federal law enforcement to curb violent crime, drug trafficking and human trafficking.
She said her most recent request came on Sept. 4, 2025, when she wrote to former Attorney General Pam Bondi and again asked for additional agents and resources.
The governor’s statement says those requests span several years as she pressed the federal government for more help in New Mexico.
Full statement from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham:
“I am appalled by reporting this week by the Associated Press and Albuquerque Journal that revealed federal authorities made a deliberate decision to let hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills flood into New Mexico communities, despite knowing that fentanyl is so lethal the White House has designated it a weapon of mass destruction.
Let me say that again: the Drug Enforcement Administration watched as 74,000 fentanyl pills were delivered to a mobile home park in Albuquerque, and they did nothing. And that’s just one transaction. Shockingly, the federal government stood by while monitoring shipments, tallying exact pill counts, and watching as these deadly drugs hit the streets.
There are no words to describe how reckless and dangerous these decisions were. Make no mistake: the DEA knew people would die if these pills made it into New Mexico communities, and the agency let it happen anyway. The result: hundreds of New Mexican parents burying their kids. Hundreds of New Mexican kids growing up without stable parents. All while the federal government stood by.
If the justification for letting these pills flood our communities was that it would somehow make New Mexico safer down the road through bigger eventual busts, the results say otherwise. New Mexico now leads the nation in the increase in overdose deaths for the second straight year, despite deaths dropping nationwide.
Today, I wrote to Attorney General Raúl Torrez and asked him to investigate whether any federal agents broke state law when they allowed lethal drugs to remain on our streets, and to prosecute anyone responsible — regardless of whether they are a federal agent or not.
I have spent years working across two administrations — writing letters, traveling to Washington, meeting directly with President Joe Biden and his cabinet, pushing for accountability, asking for more federal agents to be deployed to New Mexico to help fight this crisis.
- On June 21, 2022, I wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray, imploring the FBI to assign no less than 50 additional agents to New Mexico to stem escalating drug trafficking and violent crime.
- On September 15, 2022, I wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland, requesting that the Department of Justice provide additional federal agents, resources and support to New Mexico law enforcement. We asked the department to match the level of investigative, analytical, and technical resources the FBI had deployed in its Buffalo, NY surge.
- On August 8, 2023, I wrote again to Attorney General Garland, renewing my request that the DOJ expeditiously assign more federal agents to New Mexico.
- On September 7, 2023, I wrote to Attorney General Garland for a third time, reiterating my request once more federal law enforcement support to curb violent crime, drug and human trafficking.
- On September 4, 2025, I wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi, once again requesting additional agents and resources.
I have declared the surge of drugs like fentanyl to be a public health emergency. I have deployed the National Guard to both Albuquerque and Española. While my administration was doing everything we could to stem the tide of fentanyl coming into our state, the federal government deliberately allowed it to flood in.
New Mexican lives are not the federal government’s cost of doing business.
I plan to hold the federal government accountable for this disaster and will explore every possible avenue of action against the federal government to right these wrongs.”
The Canyon Venado Fire has grown to 852 acres east of Clines Corners and crews say wind farms in the area are threatened.
CLINES CORNERS, N.M. – The Canyon Venado Fire has grown to 852 acres east of Clines Corners and crews say wind farms in the area are threatened.
The fire is burning just east of Clines Corners, south of Interstate 40.
It forced the closure of eastbound Interstate 40 at Clines Corners on Tuesday night. I-40 reopened Tuesday night. I-40 is back open but smoke still affects visibility.
“We’re on the side of I-40 so drivers have to be pretty cautious. As far as our establishment itself we’re pretty isolated by the freeway itself as a nice fire break,” said Lincoln Tarantino, Clines Corner general manager.
The fire has burned around 852 acres, up from just 20 at this time Monday.
Crews say the fire is not contained and wind farms in the area are threatened.
New Mexico
Feds allowed millions of fentanyl pills to ‘walk’ on New Mexico streets: DEA Whistleblower
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