A survey of a handful of states with similar population sizes found New Mexico's Public Education Department is more top-heavy with administrators.

The comparison by The New Mexican found that Utah, Idaho, Nebraska and Kansas all have fewer top administrators and spend less overall on them than New Mexico does.

As the New Mexico Legislature deals with a projected $650 million budget shortfall during its special session, education spending — which accounts for about half of the state's $5.5 billion annual budget — is getting second looks from those who mind the public pocketbook.

Some lawmakers say the number of exempt employees and high-paid administrators in the Public Education Department is a place where savings could be found. However, it might not be until the regular session in January before a chance comes to consider belt tightening at the top. None of the spending cuts on the table in this special session appear to reduce the number or pay of administrators.

"No one that I have questioned can justify the top-heavy approach to public education that we have in the state," Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell, said. "They don't even try. We have been fat, dumb and happy because we've had enough money."

Adair, who in the past has worked to trim education bureaucracy, said he supports cutting the number of positions in the Public Education Department by half.

New Mexico is the only state surveyed that has a Cabinet-level education position, created after Gov. Bill Richardson took office. Education Secretary Veronica Garcia has two deputy secretaries and eight assistant secretaries.

Other states in the comparison use different titles to describe their top leaders.

Utah has a superintendent of education, one deputy superintendent and three associate superintendents. Idaho has a superintendent and six deputies. Nebraska has a commissioner of public education, with one deputy commissioner and one assistant commissioner. Kansas has a commissioner and two deputies.

Garcia says the way New Mexico describes its administrators can be misleading. She said the jobs that would be division directors in other states are called assistant secretaries here.

"They are division heads, there's not another layer of bureaucracy underneath them," she said.

Whatever they are called, no other state in the comparison spends as much overall for administrators, although Utah and Nebraska paid their highest administrator more than New Mexico pays Garcia. New Mexico's executive staff salaries amount to $1.6 million a year, which officials were quick to point out is 0.04 percent of the general fund dollars administered and overseen by the department.

And, Garcia said some of the salaries aren't competitive enough. For example, she said, she's having difficulty filling a vacant position for an assistant secretary of the Instructional Support and Vocational Education Division, a job which was paying just over $81,000 a year.

"I've not been able to find anyone to come for the salaries we are offering," she said, referring to the vocational educational spot and another assistant secretary spot that's open.

While the salaries may be a small percent of the nearly $2.4 billion the Legislature appropriated to the department for this fiscal year, lawmakers say they want to be sure that school money is being put to the best use.

"I'm not surprised that we have a larger educational bureaucracy than those other states," House Minority Whip Keith Gardner, R-Roswell, said. "We seem to be first in bureaucracy and last in achievement."

Gardner said the administration in the department — and all executive agencies — is "definitely an area where we must look."

"With regards to salaries, I think we must again look across the board at what we are spending and the product we are getting for those monies. At a time of fiscal crisis like this we should leave no stone unturned."

Sen. Sander Rue, R-Albuquerque, said he would support "a comprehensive evaluation of the PED bureaucracy to assure maximum efficiencies and potential cost savings." Depending on what was found, he said, he'd sponsor appropriate legislation.

As one way to explain the long list of administrators, Garcia and others point out the even longer list of challenges New Mexico faces with its education system.

Sen. Tim Keller, D-Albuquerque, said the department looks "a little top heavy, but we don't seem totally out of whack when you consider the unique aspects of our state."

"We deal with separate rural, urban, bilingual, charter and Native lands all in one department, so that creates the need for more staff than other states might have," he said.

"That said, I think it's reasonable to assume that after seven years of surplus, many departments in our state government could benefit from some streamlining of overlapping programs."

Garcia said she's not sure where she would be able to cut from her executive team.

"I don't feel like when I look at my executive team that I have anyone that can take on additional duties," she said. "I have a lot who have taken on additional duties already and who are spread very thin, feeling frayed and working long hours."

But, she said, if cuts are implemented by the state, her department will accept them.

"We're going to be good soldiers and do what we need to do," Garcia said, "but we'll feel it."

Garcia said budget cuts most likely mean she will hold vacant positions open longer in the department.

"It will have to come from personnel," she said.

Contact Kate Nash at 986-3036 or knash@sfnewmexican.com. Read her blog at www.greenchilechatter.com.