New high school graduation requirements head to the governor’s desk - By Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
A bill updating high school graduation requirements for New Mexico students passed the state Senate floor in a 40-0 vote, and is now headed to the governor’s desk. It’s the second bill passed by both chambers this session.
An amendment on the bill that wanted to require a standalone semester of financial literacy for students to graduate failed by a narrow margin of 19-22 after debate on the floor. The vote colored outside of party lines, with both Republicans and Democrats voting on either side of the measure.
House Bill 171 updates the standards and courses that determine if students can graduate from a New Mexico high school. This includes:
- Removing the aptitude test and adding an additional semester of social sciences requirements.
- Charter schools or school districts must determine two units of the 24 units required for graduation.
- State education officials will have to put out rules to local districts about revising course offerings.
- The law would allow electives in Career Technical Education, internships or project-based classes to count towards core requirements for graduation.
- Removes the requirement that a student must take an Advanced Placement, honors, dual credit or distance learning class.
- Algebra II is not required for graduation, but must still be offered in all schools.
The bill keeps the total number of credits to graduate at 24, the same as current graduation requirements. It does remove a state requirement for exit exams to “demonstrate competency,” in addition to coursework.
Students are still required under federal laws to take proficiency exams in 3rd, 8th and 11th grades, according to a Legislative Education Study Committee analysis of the bill.
If signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, the new standards would apply to students entering ninth grade in the 2025-2026 year, who graduate in 2029. The legislature last updated graduation requirements in 2007 for students who started high school in the 2009-2010 school year, according to bill analysis.
Lujan Grisham vetoed a similar bill brought in 2023, saying in her veto message that the bill “weakened graduation standards,” and asked lawmakers to work the administration on a new bill.
Sponsors of the bill included current and retired teachers, such as sponsor Rep. Andrés Romero (D-Albuquerque), Sen. Bill Soules (D-Las Cruces) and Senate Pro Tempore Mimi Stewart (D-Albuquerque).
FINANCIAL LITERACY FIGHT
In the Senate Education Committee and spilling onto the Senate floor, was a fight over an amendment to mandate students take a half-semester standalone financial literacy course as a graduation requirement.
In committee hearings earlier this week, education lobbyists and students supported the measure to add an extra financial literacy requirement.
Small school superintendent and teachers’ union representatives testified that adding the requirement may be difficult for smaller schools, and that new social studies incorporate financial literacy into schoolwork.
Romero, a social studies teacher at Atrisco Heritage Academy High School in Albuquerque, said those standards went into effect this year, adding financial literacy concepts in kindergarten to 12th grade.
One supporter for financial literacy standalone classes was New Mexico State Treasurer Laura Montoya, appearing before the Senate Education Committee earlier this week.
“You didn’t give students an option whether or not they should be in geometry or in Algebra, but you want to give them an option as to whether or not literacy is better for them,” Montoya said. “We all know that financial literacy is better for them because [we] may have messed up our credit score or someone else’s credit score close to us.”
DEBATE MOVES FROM THE COMMITTEE TO THE FLOOR
In the floor vote on Wednesday, both Stewart and Soules said the governor was not asking for a financial literacy requirement.
“Some of our members have been called by our treasurer and told that the governor wants to amend the bill, and that’s not true,” Stewart said. “I called the governor’s office and they said I could say that on the floor of the senate.”
A spokesperson for Lujan Grisham said Stewart’s statement was accurate.
Soules urged the body to reject the amendment, saying that districts could adopt standalone financial literacy requirements for graduation, and that financial literacy is part of required coursework for high schoolers when they take government, civics and personal economics.
The new requirements would allow for the half-year elective financial literacy course to now be counted towards math credits, Stewart said.
Soules said the bill was the product of four years of work, and that it had support from superintendents, school boards, teachers’ unions and other education groups.
“We have not updated the requirements for high school graduation in almost 20 years, the world has changed,” he said.
Sen. Martin Hickey (D-Albuquerque) added the amendment on the floor, he said adding one semester of financial literacy offers “fundamental life skills” to high school students, and that too few students are learning it without a one-semester focused course.
“I’ve had 30 years of continuous education, I never learned any of this stuff,” Hickey said. “I got taken by loans, paid a lot more money, had credit card fees.”
Lawmakers such as Sen. Moe Maestas (D-Albuquerque), Sen. Bill Sharer (R-Farmington) and Sen. Joe Cervantes (D-Las Cruces) voiced their support for the amendment.
Sharer, after giving an overview of financial literacy talks he’s given, said it will help students achieve their goals.
“We’re not a poor state, we act like a poor state,” Sharer said. “And we act like a poor state because too many of us don’t understand that money is just a tool, and how you use that tool is important.”
In the debate’s conclusion, Soules said that financial literacy is crucial and said that students are receiving that through the new social studies coursework.
“Every student, 100% of them will be getting financial literacy through this program,” he said. “The changes to the standard occurred less than a year ago, they are brand new.”
New Mexico legislators seek endowment to bolster autonomous tribal education programs - By Morgan Lee Associated Press
New Mexico legislators would create a unique educational endowment of at least $50 million to help Native American communities create their own student programs, include efforts to teach and preserve Indigenous languages, under a proposal endorsed Thursday by the state House.
The bill from Democratic legislators with ties to tribal communities including the Navajo Nation and smaller Native American pueblos won unanimous House approval on a 68-0 vote, advancing to the state Senate for consideration. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham recently voiced support for the initiative.
Sponsors say the endowment would help reverse the vestiges of forced assimilation of Native American children, including the legacy of at U.S.-backed boarding schools, and fulfill the state's commitment to Native American students in the wake of a landmark state court ruling.
"What this does is it pushes back against 200-plus years of federal policies that sought to erase Native Americans from this nation and says, 'Well, we know how to school, to teach our children best," said Rep. Derrick Lente, a resident and tribal member of Sandia Pueblo and lead sponsor of the initiative. "They know that language is important."
New Mexico is home to 23 federally recognized tribal communities, and the U.S. Census indicates that Native Americans make up about 11% of the state population, both on and off reservation lands.
An appropriation from the state general fund would establish the "tribal education trust fund," with annual distributions to tribal communities set at roughly 5% of the fund's corpus — about $2.5 million on a balance of $50 million.
Under an agreement that Lente helped broker, tribes would determine how the money is divvied up among Native American communities using a "unanimous consensus process of consultation, collaboration and communication ... with the option of appointing peacemakers in the event of a dispute regarding the formula."
New Mexico lawmakers currently have a multibillion budget surplus at their disposal — a windfall linked largely to robust oil and natural gas production — as they craft an annual spending plan and search for effective strategies to raise average high school graduation rates and academic attainment scores up to national averages.
At the same time, state lawmakers have been under pressure for years to resolve a 2018 court ruling that concluded New Mexico has fallen short of its constitutional duty to provide an adequate education to students from low-income households, Native American communities, those with disabilities and English-language learners.
"More important than the money — of $50 million — is the idea that a trust fund be established, and sovereign nations be named as the beneficiaries on behalf of their children," said state Rep. Anthony Allison of Fruitland, who is Navajo. "Our dream is that this is just the beginning, and that future generations will benefit from our dreams and our vision on their behalf."
Lente said he continues to push for a larger, $100 million initial contribution by the state to the endowment.
Landlords in Albuquerque and Roswell ordered to pay to resolve alleged tenant abuses - By Megan Myscofski, KUNM News
Two landlords in Albuquerque and Roswell have been ordered by a court to pay tenants for overcharging them.
The U.S. Attorney of New Mexico announced the tenants were voucher holders under the federal Housing Choice Voucher Program, known as Section 8. That means they were only meant to pay 30% of their income towards rent, and federal funds would cover the difference.
The Roswell landlord, an apartment complex operator named Turnaround Properties, collected more. It also turned down a refund request from the tenant, who has physical and cognitive limitations. It will pay a $30,000 settlement.
The Albuquerque landlord Santana Ortiz collected excess rent payments from a tenant and concealed a sham lease agreement from the local housing authority. He will pay a $12,000 settlement.
Attorney Thomas Prettyman, who represented both tenants on behalf of New Mexico Legal Aid, said in a release his organization hopes these cases will discourage other landlords from breaking the rules so Section 8 remains affordable for those who need help.
New Mexico legislators advance bill to reduce income taxes and rein in a tax break on investments - By Morgan Lee, Associated Press
A bill that would reduce personal income taxes across the earnings spectrum and collect more taxes on investment income passed the Democratic-led New Mexico state House on Wednesday.
The broad package of tax changes won House endorsement on a 48-21 vote and now moves to the Senate for consideration.
State government would forgo about $105 million annually overall through adjustments to personal income tax rates and brackets while collecting more taxes on investment income.
All income tax payers would see a decrease, with the greatest savings in dollar terms among middle-income earners, according to an analysis by the state Taxation and Revenue Department.
Annual income tax would decrease by $16, or 12%, to $136 for a couple with taxable income of $8,000, the agency said. A wealthier couple with an annual taxable income of $400,000 would save about $553, or 2.8%, on annual taxes of $20,042.
The bill from Democratic state Rep. Derrick Lente, of Sandia Pueblo, also includes tax credits and deductions aimed at shoring up the medical workforce in remote rural areas and easing the fiscal burden on child care and preschool providers.
He said in a statement that the bill aims to "improve access to healthcare and childcare, support clean energy, and provide support for our friends and neighbors who need it most."
The bill would incentivize the construction of large-scale energy storage projects — which can make renewable wind and solar energy production more useful — by reducing local government taxes on the facilities through the use of industrial revenue bonds.
Proposed changes for businesses would set a flat 5.9% rate for the corporate income tax at companies with less than $500,00 in annual income.
New Mexico residents who saw their homes destroyed in recent wildfires would be eligible for new income tax credit.
A statement from House Democrats says the bill reduces a cap on capital gains tax exemptions to $2,500 — limiting a tax break "that overwhelmingly benefits the state's highest earners."
House Republicans led by state Rep. Jim Townsend, of Artesia, unsuccessfully proposed more aggressive tax cuts in light of an estimated $3.5 billion general fund surplus for the coming fiscal year. In a failed amendment, he suggested a flat 1% tax on personal income.
Current rates range from 1.7% on taxable income under $4,000 for individuals to 5.9% on annual income over $157,000.
Los Lunas will hold meeting to discuss possible new agreement with bottled water company – Valencia County News-Bulletin
The Los Lunas Village Council will meet Thursday to vote on an agreement with Niagara Bottling.
The Valencia County News-Bulletin reports the company is requesting an expansion of its allotted water usage from a well that belongs to the village. Many locals say that they can’t afford to give up more water in the face of drought and groundwater overuse.
The Second Lieutenant Governor of Isleta Pueblo spoke out against the deal at a previous meeting on behalf of the Pueblo. He said that because the wells are close to Isleta’s southern boundary, it would have the same effect as if the water were drawn from Pueblo lands. The mayors of Peralta and Bosque Farms also oppose the agreement.
The Los Lunas Council discussed the agreement at its December 7th meeting, but the item was tabled until this week to give a hydrologist time to provide additional information about the health of the aquifer.
The company already consistently exceeds its water usage under its current contract.
The meeting will be held Thursday at 6pm at Village Hall.
DA launches new system to notify law enforcement of missed court dates - By Elise Kaplan, City Desk ABQ
This story was originally published by City Desk ABQ.
The Second Judicial District Attorney’s Office has launched a new system to notify law enforcement agencies when an officer misses a hearing or a pre-trial interview.
Joshua Boone, the chief deputy district attorney, said in an interview on Tuesday that the DA’s Office started working on the system—essentially a Google spreadsheet that is populated when an attorney or paralegal in the office fills out a form—in the fall and began using it earlier this year.
“The minute we submit this form, it automatically sends an email to the court liaison,” Boone said. “Then APD created their own separate email and it will automatically send it to that designated email.”
The processes around notification of missed court hearings and interviews has been a hot topic as the FBI investigates allegations that DWI officers in the Albuquerque Police Department were colluding with a local defense attorney to get cases dismissed. (However the exact allegations are unclear and there has also been a complaint that one of the officers told a person he arrested that if he hired a certain lawyer he could “ensure that no court case would be filed in court by APD.”)
The District Attorney’s Office has now dismissed 195 cases since being notified that “multiple members of APD’s DWI unit have major integrity issues,” said spokesperson Nancy Laflin. She said prosecutors had to dismiss all of the cases where the officers being investigated by the FBI were necessary witnesses but there are some cases they can still proceed on without having to call them to testify.
When asked about whether the new system could help catch patterns of officers missing court hearings in the future, Boone said “it certainly isn’t going to hurt.”
“(Law enforcement agencies) can use it for whatever reason they want,” he said. “We use it because you don’t want to lose cases. We believe in this work, we’re trying to make sure our witnesses show up. We want to make the community safer.”
At a news conference last week, Chief Harold Medina said APD had been getting notifications from the DA’s Office when an officer missed a hearing but those stopped in September 2022. It started getting the notifications through the DA’s new system earlier this year.
Boone said he could not speak for the prior administration—Raúl Torrez was in office until the end of 2022 when he became the state’s Attorney General—but after Sam Bregman was appointed to the role of District Attorney, prosecutors would communicate with officers and other witnesses ahead of a hearing or interview to try to ensure that they show up. He said it would be “case by case” whether prosecutors would notify a supervisor if an officer didn’t show.
“We will follow up at times with the officers and be like, ‘hey, is there something that we should know about?’” Boone said. “There’s no rule, there’s no law that says once an officer misses court you must call them and find out or call their commander or supervisor. So it was left to individual DAs, sometimes that would get escalated, sometimes it wouldn’t.”
Lauren Rodriguez, a spokesperson for Torrez, did not answer questions about why notifications stopped being sent to APD in the fall of 2022.
“Every law enforcement agency is responsible for ensuring that their officers appear for scheduled hearings,” she wrote in a statement. “As a courtesy, our office provided regular updates to all of our law enforcement partners whenever their officers failed to appear, but ultimately each agency was responsible for their officers’ attendance in court.”
APD spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos said it is helpful for APD to hold officers accountable if they are notified by the DA’s Office or the courts of missed hearings and that it is “not a blame game.”
“The whole issue of whether the DA or the Courts are obligated to share information seems beside the point,” Gallegos said. “However we get the information, it helps us hold officers accountable.”
He said Medina has worked with the DA’s Office under both Torrez and Bregman to improve the process for officers to turn in evidence. And, he said, Mayor Tim Keller created the Metro Crime Initiative, which strives to improve the criminal justice system and “also included a call for dashboard where we can share data to improve public safety.”
“We have worked for the past year to get access to a court data system that now gives us more access, but it still does not include data for specific officers,” said Gallegos. “We are trying to get the courts to add that data. Once that occurs, our data system can automate the data so we can effectively track officers who miss hearings or trials.”
Construction underway for world-class film training center at Rail Yards - City Desk ABQ
This story was originally published by City Desk ABQ.
Construction has started to transform a part of the historic Albuquerque Rail Yards into a world-class film production training center.
The project is a partnership between the City of Albuquerque, Central New Mexico Community College (CNM), and the New Mexico Economic Development Department. The iconic Boiler Shop building at the Rail Yards, once used to transfer heavy parts to train engines, is being transformed into a state-of-the-art training hub for future filmmakers, creating a workforce development pipeline for the state’s booming film industry and a contributing to economic revitalization for Downtown Albuquerque. CNM’s longstanding Film Production and Digital Media programs, as well as the State’s film training program (Media Arts Collective), will co-locate and share equipment and training resources at the facility.
“This state-of-the-art facility is going to increase access for New Mexicans to get high-quality film production training and begin careers that will help our film industry continue to thrive. We’re honored to continue this journey with our great partners at the State of New Mexico and the City of Albuquerque to deliver a world-class facility for New Mexicans and the film industry,” aid CNM President Tracy Hartzler.
Once completed, the facility will offer industry-standard, hands-on, and craft-specific workforce training and job competencies for the film, television, and digital media industry. Along with soundstages, there will be classrooms, offices, post-production and flex spaces, featuring the most current equipment and technology.
“We look forward to making this a hub for training the next generation of film production professionals who will help New Mexico remain as one of the country’s top filmmaking destinations,” said Chad Burris, Executive Director of the New Mexico Media Arts Collective.
Voters approved bond funding for CNM to improve and expand their film production training facilities. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, with support from the New Mexico Legislature and the City of Albuquerque, has also allocated funds to build facilities and training programs that will deliver set-ready, skilled New Mexicans to fill jobs in the state’s thriving film and television industry.
Students from across the state will be able to participate in the training opportunities, including students from Santa Fe Community College, Doña Ana Community College, Luna Community College, San Juan College, New Mexico State University, Institute of American Indian Arts, Eastern New Mexico University and Highlands University.
The facility is expected to be completed in late 2025, and open for classes and training in January 2026.
More Republicans back spending on child care, saying it's an economic issue - By Moriah Balingit, AP Education Writer
Like a lot of mothers, North Dakota state Rep. Emily O'Brien struggled to find infant care when her daughter Lennon was born in 2019. So O'Brien, a Republican who represents the Grand Forks region, brought Lennon along to meetings with local leaders and constituents.
O'Brien had her second daughter, Jolene, in 2022, not long before legislators were due to meet. Wanting more time to bond before returning to work, O'Brien brought the newborn with her to Bismarck, where she snoozed through Gov. Doug Burgum's State of the State address on her mother's desk.
Not long after, O'Brien persuaded her colleagues to back a plan to invest $66 million in child care, an unprecedented sum for a state that had, like others with Republican leadership, long resisted such spending. But O'Brien argued it could help the state's workforce shortage by helping more parents go to work and attracting new families to the state.
"It was definitely not, you know, an easy sell, because this is probably somewhere where you don't want the government to get involved," O'Brien said. "But it's a workforce solution. We have people that are willing and able to work, but finding child care was an obstacle."
Republicans historically have been lukewarm about using taxpayer money for child care, even as they have embraced prekindergarten. But the pandemic, which left many child care providers in crisis, underscored how precarious the industry is and how many working parents rely on it.
In 2021, Congress passed $24 billion of pandemic aid for child care businesses, an unprecedented federal investment. Now, as that aid dries up, Republican state lawmakers across the country are embracing plans to support child care — and even making it central to their policy agendas.
To be sure, the largest investments in child care have come not from Republicans but from Democratic lawmakers. In New Mexico, the state is covering child care for most children under 5 using a trust funded by oil and natural gas production. In Vermont, Democratic state lawmakers overrode a Republican governor's veto to pass a payroll tax hike to fund child care subsidies.
Red states are following suit with more modest — but nonetheless historic — investments in child care.
In Missouri, Republican Gov. Mike Parson has proposed spending nearly $130 million to help low-income families access child care once the pandemic relief money dries up and to create tax credits to support child care providers.
Republican state Rep. Brenda Shields, who sponsored the tax credit bill, said she tells conservative colleagues that child care accessibility is critical to grow the state's economy.
"Child care is a critical infrastructure, just like roads and bridges and ports and trains," Shields said. "Businesses have been saying, 'What are you doing about child care?' So I'm trying to be part of the solution."
Elsewhere, Louisiana last year approved an unprecedented $52 million for child care subsidies for low-income families. Alabama provided $17 million worth of incentives for child care providers to get licensed. And Texas voters approved a property tax cut for some day care centers.
More Republicans have pledged to tackle the child care crisis this year. In Missouri, Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden, a Republican, said he hoped the Statehouse would focus less on culture war issues — like criminalizing drag shows and censoring library books — and more on expanding access to child care and school choice. Nebraska and Indiana have both pitched programs to make child care free for child care workers. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican who ran on a conservative education agenda, pitched boosting the state's child care and education spending by $180 million.
Child care advocates say the investments are not enough and called on Congress to authorize a new round of money to keep the child care industry afloat. Already, day care centers report they are raising tuition and losing workers because they are no longer receiving federal subsidies. Some have folded.
GOP resistance to child care spending dates to the 1970s, when President Richard Nixon vetoed a bill to establish a national child care system, invoking fears of communism and saying it had "family-weakening implications." Many of those arguments persist. Some conservative lawmakers have panned child care funding as " socialist," arguing that people who can't afford day care should not have children. Two years ago, an Idaho state lawmaker apologized after he opposed federal early childhood money because it encouraged women to " come out of the home and let others raise their children."
The new and expanded funding reflects a growing sentiment that the nation's broken child care system will not be fixed without public support. Families have long faced issues finding affordable, reliable child care. But during the pandemic, many child care workers left the industry for better-paying jobs, and some child care centers closed for good, exacerbating the problem.
Child care is a labor-heavy enterprise — in some states, one person may only care for four infants at once. Even before the pandemic, child care providers often had razor-thin margins. When families kept their children home during the pandemic, many day cares were barely hanging on.
Many parts of the country do not have enough child care providers to offer slots for all children. Even when slots are available, the cost is out of reach for many families. It's a problem that disproportionately affects women, who are typically the primary caregivers for children.
But a lack of child care access is also keeping people from the workforce, contributing to a labor shortage in many states. Many industries have started lobbying for states to invest more in child care. One of the strongest proponents is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, which surveyed a dozen states and estimated they lost billions of dollars in economic activity because of child care gaps.
Resistance persists in many parts of the country. While North Dakota passed ground-breaking measures to support child care, Republican Gov. Kristi Noem in South Dakota said she opposed proposals to spend state dollars helping families pay for child care.
"The one thing … that I'm not wiling to do is to directly subsidize child care for families," Noem recently told KWAT News in Watertown, South Dakota. "I just don't think it's the government's job to pay or to raise people's children for them."
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