The New Mexico Legislature passed several education bills in the session that ended Thursday, but not all reforms passed.
Senate Bill 137 requires school board candidates to disclose their donors and any campaign-related spending over $1,000. The bill also requires a minimum 10 hours of training for board members on essential topics like how they can improve student outcomes. It also requires all local school board meetings to be webcast, archived, and publicly available.
Efforts to require a financial literacy class were only partially successful. Among the 25 states that require a semester of financial literacy class in high school, New Mexico is not one of them. But the state ranks 49th for financial literacy, according to Think New Mexico, which advocated for House Bill 171. The final bill does include a clause that a financial literacy class can still be taken as an elective. That was part of a broader update in the bill on standards and courses required to graduate high school.
Bills advocating for smaller class sizes for elementary schools ultimately didn’t pass, but a House memorial directing the Legislative Education Study committee to make it a priority next session did go through.
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