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We are in the fifth week of the 2023 Legislative Session with 29 days remaining! Thursday was the deadline for introducing new bills, and we expect things to begin moving much more quickly over the second half of this year’s legislative session. Here’s an update on what’s happened recently.
ENSURE NEW MEXICO STUDENTS RECEIVE RESEARCH-BASED INSTRUCTION IN EARLY LITERACY
Our early literacy bill has been introduced! House Bill 481, introduced by Minority Leader Ryan Lane, creates a new fund for districts to adopt high-quality instructional materials aligned to the science of reading at no cost to the district. The bill is waiting to be scheduled in the House Education Committee.
Until then, sign our petition and share it with your networks so we can alert you as soon as we need your support.
Also, if you’re interested in testifying in support of this bill, please reply to this email and let us know.
ALERT – IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED!!!
SENATE BILL 422: SCHOOL DISTRICT MEMBERSHIP LIMITATION
SB 422 acts as a charter school moratorium in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos. The bill states that you cannot open a charter school in any district where the current enrollment of charter school students is 10% of the local school district’s population.
This bill is unacceptable. It shows no regard for the incredible schools that, especially through COVID, fought tooth and nail to provide every educational opportunity for their students. Parents and families in New Mexico deserve high-quality school options that meet their child’s needs, and we should not limit options out of deference to the local school district.
We need your support to show the legislature that we will not accept limitations on access to high quality schools. Call members of the Senate Education committee using our patch-through link below, to let them know that this attack on charter schools will not be tolerated.
HOUSE BILL 126: SCHOOL GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS
HB 126, which changes graduation requirements for students entering 9th grade in the 2024-2025 school year, continues to make progress through the legislative process. As we’ve previously stated, we cannot support this bill as it removes Algebra II and two semesters of a foreign language as graduation requirements, putting New Mexico students at risk of not being able to apply to our state’s flagship university, the University of New Mexico. If this bill passes, it will move us in the wrong direction and send a message to teachers, parents, and school leaders that we don’t believe in all students. 2021 State Teacher of the Year, Alisa Cooper de Uribe, and 8 other New Mexico Teachers of the year said it best in this piece for the Santa Fe New Mexican, “We believe House Bill 126 takes us in the wrong direction for many reasons, but most of all because it sends a message that we don’t believe in our students. There are no paths to success from there.”
The bill passed out of its first two committees with strong bipartisan support and now awaits a House floor vote. We anticipate that this bill will continue to build momentum, and we will need your help expressing our concerns when it reaches the Senate.
COMMUNITY EDUCATORS ACT
One of our policy priorities is to create a pathway for CTE Community Educators which is exactly what HB 472 does. New Mexico students desire an education grounded in relevance and real-world application, especially in Career and Technical Education courses. We are excited to introduce a bill that utilizes our community’s assets by creating a new pathway for career experts and tradesmen to serve as classroom educators.
HB 472, sponsored by Representative Pamelya Herndon, has been assigned to the House Education and House Judiciary committees. Stay tuned for updates.
EXTENDED LEARNING TIME PROPOSALS
HOUSE BILL 130 & HOUSE BILL 194
There are two competing proposals to extend class time in public schools. HB 130 and HB 194 would increase the minimum number of instructional hours from 990 for elementary school and 1,080 for middle and high school to 1,140 for all students. HB 194 requires 80 hours of professional development time for teachers on top of the 1,140 hours, whereas HB 130 allows 60 hours of professional development to be counted as instructional time.
NewMexicoKidsCAN supports extended learning and believes that instructional hours should only apply to hours in which all students are receiving instruction. We also acknowledge that quality professional development is vital to a thriving education system. We, however, do not believe professional development hours should count as instructional time.
HB 130 has passed out of its first two committees and now moves to the House Appropriations and Finance Committee. HB 194 has yet to receive a committee hearing but has been referred to the House Education Committee and the House Appropriations and Finance Committee.
STATE BUDGET UPDATE
The House of Representatives passed the state budget yesterday and now it officially moves over to the Senate. The House approved budget is the largest in state history at $9.43 billion dollars, a 12% increase from last year.
The key education headlines from the current budget proposal are:
• The total K-12 education budget is $4.1 Billion, a 9% increase from last year.
• For reference, the K-12 budget five years ago, in FY19 was $2.8 Billion, an increase of $1.3 Billion, or approximately $4,000 per public school student.
• An average pay 5% increase for public school and higher education is included.
• Salary increases for EA’s to a minimum of $25,0000/year are included.
• There is a lot more to digest regarding the education budget. We will have a deeper dive analysis of the education budget on our blog soon.
We anticipate having many more updates and opportunities for you to act in support of our policies as the session continues. Please be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram for all the latest updates. We stand ready to advocate for New Mexico students and families during this legislative session! As always, we’ll keep you updated as the session progresses.