News

Proposed education department overhaul now faces last hurdle

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By Robert Nott, The Santa Fe New Mexican

A proposed overhaul of New Mexico’s public education system — eliminating the Cabinet secretary position and reestablishing a statewide board of education — is headed to its last stop, the House floor. The House Education Committee voted 9-2 Wednesday to support Senate Joint Resolution 1, which calls for a November 2024 general election ballot question asking New Mexico voters to decide on a constitutional amendment making the change. The Senate already has approved the resolution, which does not need the governor’s signature to take effect. 

If voters approve the amendment, the revamped public education system would be similar to the one in place two decades ago. New Mexico voters opted to dismantle the state school board in 2003 and create the Cabinet position of public education secretary under then-Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat. Veronica García, a former superintendent of Santa Fe Public Schools, served as the state’s first education secretary for about seven years under Richardson.

Health

House Education Committee passes bill to codify School-Based Health Centers

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The House Education Committee passed the bill to codify School-Based Health Centers into state statute by a party line vote of 8-to-4 on Monday. SB 397, School-Based Health Centers, sponsored by state Sen. Nancy Rodriguez, D-Santa Fe, would not change the way School-Based Health Centers already operate in the state. The local school district as well as the individual school determine if the school will have a School-Based Health Center and decide what provider the school will contract with. Republicans have expressed concern over this bill, saying that parents do not receive notification for reproductive healthcare and that the districts do not have local control. Rodriguez said she is also concerned about local control and the bill does not reduce a district’s or a school’s ability to choose which provider the school contracts with or what services the provider provides.

NM Legislature

Bill to eliminate GRT on early childcare centers passes first committee

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The House Education Committee unanimously passed a bill that would eliminate the Gross Receipts Tax on small business owners operating early childcare centers. HB 137, GRT Deductions for Child Care Assistance, will, if enacted, eliminate the 8 percent to 9 percent GRT that early childcare centers are required to pay on children who qualify for state assistance. State Rep. Micaela Lara Cadena, a Democrat from Mesilla, sponsored the bill and she called the bill an equity issue as most early childcare centers are operated by women of color. Cadena said that early childcare centers that serve Children Youth and Families Department contracts “have to pay GRT on those same contracts and reimbursement rates.”

“We hold providers to really high standards. We expect them to meet those same outcomes, have the same quality of care and we expect them to meet that with 8 percent or more less revenue.

News

Bills to address Yazzie/Martinez court ruling advance

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The House Education Committee approved a trio of bills to fund programs to help Native American students succeed in school. The three bills, sponsored by Rep. Derrick Lente, D-Sandia Pueblo, are in response to the historic 2018 Yazzie/Martinez court ruling that said New Mexico has denied several groups of students, including Native Americans, their constitutional right to an education. House bills 87, 88 and 90 would provide more than $70 million to tribal entities to help offer culturally relevant lesson plans and access to virtual and after-school programs for those students. 

“This is not about throwing money at a problem in hopes that it goes away,” Lente told committee members. “That’s a practice we’ve engaged in for decades and we’ve seen the results. “Where we’re trying to get to is shift the priorities … to make sure Native American students are educated within their communities … and have the capacity to access equitable learning programs,” he added.

Alexandria Taylor

Nondiscrimination bill to protect cultural hair and hairstyles receives unanimous support in Senate Education Committee

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A nondiscrimination bill to protect cultural hairstyles in the workplace and school settings received bipartisan support in the Senate Education Committee Friday. The No School Discrimination for Hair bill passed unanimously in the Senate Education Committee Friday. More than one state senator expressed shock that discrimination around

cultural hair and hairstyles is still possible with impunity. “We should’ve been doing this decades ago,” state Sen. Michael Padilla, a Democrat from Albuquerque, said. Sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Harold Pope Jr., of Albuquerque, SB 80, protects children in public and charter schools and people in the workplace from discrimination based on cultural hair and hair styles, such as braids, locs, twists, and knots.

Garnett STokes

After changes, chances of ‘Opportunity Scholarship’ passage increase

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The outlook for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s tuition-free college scholarship, one of her signature initiatives for the legislative session, had started to seem dubious. A budget bill the House passed last week for fiscal year 2021 included $35 million for financial aid programs — but no funding for the New Mexico Opportunity Scholarship that Lujan Grisham had announced with fanfare in the fall. The effort would boost  enrollment and graduation numbers at state colleges and universities, she said, and strengthen the state’s workforce. But legislators had raised concerns that her proposal didn’t do enough to direct funding toward the lowest-income students. The Governor’s Office and lawmakers collaborated on an overhaul to address those concerns, and the House Education Committee renewed hope Monday that her plan to ultimately provide free tuition could become a reality for some 55,000 eligible New Mexico students each year who attend in-state schools.

Quick Reads

Bill to fund tax-poor rural school districts clears first committee

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As New Mexico lawmakers look for a way to provide extra funding for public school students in some of the most financially challenged areas of the state, a bill that eventually would provide $60 million a year for some of those districts to share cleared its first hurdle Wednesday. House Bill 4, sponsored by Democratic Reps. Brian Egolf of Santa Fe, Patricia Lundstrom of Gallup and Anthony Allison of Fruitland, would appropriate $18.9 million in fiscal year 2021 to start the new fund. Over the course of three years, the fund would grow to about $60 million in both operational funding and capital outay, Egolf said, adding 23 of New Mexico’s 89 school districts would be eligible for a share. The new funding is “a dire, dire need for us,” said Jvanna Hanks, assistant superintendent of Gallup-McKinley County Schools, a district that would qualify.

2019 Legislative Session

Dems push plan to tap the ‘permanent fund’ for early childhood education

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A proposed constitutional amendment to draw more money from the state Land Grant Permanent Fund to expand early childhood education jumped its first hurdle with ease Wednesday. The House Education Committee voted 10-4 on party lines for the measure. Democrats supported the measure, House Joint Resolution 1. It would take another 1 percent — at least $150 million a year — from the $17.5 billion state endowment. The bill’s proponents, including Rep. Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque, say early childhood education can transform New Mexico, often regarded as one of the worst states in the nation for public education.

NM Legislature

Dems again push to use land grant to fund early childhood education

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A ballot measure that calls for using more money from the state’s $17 billion Land Grant Permanent Fund for early childhood education is a small step closer to going to voters this year. The House Education Committee on Monday voted 7-6 along party lines to approve the constitutional amendment that backers say could expand access to education programs for young children across New Mexico, the state with the highest rate of child poverty. Republicans on the committee voted against the proposal. They say it could deplete a fund that now props up the budgets of New Mexico’s public schools and is supposed to last forever. Democrats in the House of Representatives have made a priority of getting the measure, House Joint Resolution 1, on the November ballot.

Education

Reading bill dies quietly

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For seven consecutive years, Gov. Susana Martinez has unsuccessfully pushed a bill to hold back thousands of third-graders who score below par on standardized reading tests. A pair of similar bills this year haven’t even received a hearing before a legislative committee. And with just five days left in the 60-day legislative session, it is unlikely that they will. Democratic Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard, chairwoman of the House Education Committee, said she didn’t know whether the panel would have time to hear House Bill 114, introduced by Rep. Monica Youngblood, R-Albuquerque. But even if Garcia Richard’s committee takes up the measure, it almost certainly would table it.