New Mexico group outlines Legislature’s education bills

Last fall, Think New Mexico published “A Roadmap for Rethinking Public Education in New Mexico,” which proposed an extensive agenda of recommendations to improve New Mexico’s public schools. During the current legislative session, bills have been introduced on six of the issues identified in that report.

♦ Optimizing learning time: Increasing learning time is one of the most effective strategies for improving student proficiency and closing achievement gaps. House Bill 130 and House Bill 194 both increase the minimum number of instructional hours from the current 990 for elementary school and 1,080 for middle and high school to 1,140 for all students.

House Bill 194 is the better option because it includes 80 hours of professional development and planning time for teachers in addition to the 1,140 hours.

By contrast, House Bill 130 allows up to 60 hours of the 1,140 to be used for teacher training. Time for teachers and time for students are both essential, and they should not be in competition with one another.

♦ Enhancing school board performance: Research shows school boards can positively impact student performance when they make that their core focus. House Bill 325 aims to improve school board governance by enhancing training, accountability, and transparency.

The bill would ensure that board members receive training in public school finance; the role of school boards in improving student achievement; and best practices for supervising and supporting a superintendent. It would also require all school board candidates to disclose their campaign contributions, ensure that meetings are webcast and require members who violate the prohibition against nepotism to step down from their position.

♦ Ensuring high-quality teacher training: The number of graduates from New Mexico’s four-year colleges of education has fallen by 75% over the past decade. Graduates report the programs over-emphasize abstract theory rather than practical, hands-on experiences that are more valuable to future teachers.

House Bill 460 proposes to convert the final year of the four-year programs into a teacher residency, a paid yearlong experience in a classroom alongside a master teacher. It also ensures the curricula in the colleges of education to be grounded in current best practices, including evidence-based math and literacy instruction.

♦ Maximizing education funding that reaches the classroom: An analysis by the Legislature’s budget staff found that in recent years, spending on administrative overhead at school district central offices grew nearly three times faster than spending at the school sites on teachers, principals, counselors, nurses, coaches and librarians. Senate Bill 438 would limit the growth of school district central administrative spending to no faster than the growth of spending at the school site.

♦ Smaller classes: Smaller class sizes allow teachers to provide more personalized instruction, which is particularly important for the at-risk students who need the most support. House Bill 413 sets lower class size limits for schools that have high populations of at-risk students, and it restricts the use of waivers to exceed those limits.

♦ Providing rigorous and relevant high school graduation requirements: Think New Mexico opposes House Bill 126, an overhaul of high school graduation requirements. Disappointingly, House Bill 126 reduces the total number of credits from 24 to 22 and removes the current requirement that schools offer financial literacy courses. It also fails to include a language other than English or career technical education in the graduation requirements. If these classes are no longer required, school districts with the least resources — and the most at-risk students — may simply stop offering them.