Things on the governor’s desk

I’m back from three days off, and I know you all missed me. While I was out studying for and taking comprehensive exams for my MA, the Legislative session ended. And incredibly, from when I last posted on Friday, 18 more education bills passed both houses of the Legislature and await the governor’s signature or veto. The session may be over, but I’ll continue what I started last week by looking at these bills and keeping an eye on what the governor signs and vetoes. My past coverage in this vein is here, here and here.

HB51: This bill, sponsored by Rep. Sheryl Williams Stapleton, D-Albuquerque, would allow summer civics courses to be offered as high school electives. I didn’t know they weren’t allowed already, but there you go.

HB53: This bill, also sponsored by Rep. Williams Stapleton, would create a new law called the Teacher Loan Repayment Act, and would assist teachers in paying off their student loans if they went to teach in high-risk schools.

HB54: Also sponsored by Williams Stapleton, this bill would require all school boards to establish a cyberbullying prevention policy by August. Districts are already required by law to have anti-bullying policies in place, but this would require district policies to specifically address cyber bullying.

HB232: This bill has some bipartisan love from Rep. James Smith, R-Sandia Park, and Sen. Jacob Candelaria, D-Albuquerque. The bill would require school board candidates to report campaign contributions, the same way candidates for other offices do. APS already has a policy requiring this, but this would codify it in law and would apply to all districts.

HB310: This bill, sponsored by Rep. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, modifies the criteria for schools to qualify to have the K-3 Plus program. Before, at least 85 percent of a school’s students had to come from low-income families in order for the school to qualify. Now, schools can qualify if they have 80 percent or more low-income students or if they got a D or F school grade the previous year.

HB392: This bill, sponsored by Rep. Mary Helen Garcia, D-Las Cruces, would make the Public Education Commission independent of the Public Education Department, and would remove the secretary of education’s power to overturn the PEC’s decisions about whether to approve the authorization of new charter schools or the renewal of existing ones. This comes as the PEC is suing Education Secretary-designate Hanna Skandera over this decision.

HB460: I’ve written about this bill, sponsored by Rep. Stewart and Sen. Tim Keller, D-Albuquerque. It would prevent for-profit companies from administering school curriculum. I’ve laid this out more thoroughly here and here.

HB462: This is a companion bill to SB464, which would allow schools to continue getting class size waivers in order to cope with tight budgets. It is sponsored by David Gallegos, R-Eunice, and I wrote about the potential implications for APS here.

HB513: This bill, also sponsored by Stewart, codifies some aspects of the “alternative demonstration of competency” requirement for students who don’t pass the 11th grade Standards-Based Assessment.

HB623: This bill, sponsored by Rep. Christine Trujillo, clarifies that school counselors, as well as teachers, are eligible for tier-three licensure.

HB628: This bill, sponsored by Rep. W. Ken Martinez, D-Grants, would provide an appropriation to cover special education funding requirements in the event that this issue with the feds doesn’t get resolved in NM’s favor.

HJR2: This resolution for a constitutional amendment is sponsored by Rep. Smith and Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque. It would allow school board elections to be held along with other non-partisan elections, like city elections. I’ve given this resolution its own blog post before.

SB115: This bill, sponsored by Sen. Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, is about solvency in the education retirement fund. Honestly, I’m not an expert, so here’s a quick overview from my more informed colleague Dan Boyd.

SB231: This bill, sponsored by Sen. Keller and Rep. Jimmie Hall, R-Albuquerque, would give school districts and charter schools more flexibility in how they invest their money, including them in some of the laws that allow cities and counties to invest.

SB333: This bill, sponsored by Sen. Sue Wilson Beffort, R-Sandia Park, tightens up the rules on charter school nepotism and lease payments.

SB370: This bill, sponsored by Sen. Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, creates an alternative school grading scheme for alternative schools and charter schools that cater specifically to at-risk students.

SB587: I figure most people have stopped reading by now, but this one is interesting. Sponsored by Sen. Howie Morales, D-Silver City, this bill would repeal the school grading act as it stands and create a council to study school grades and come up with a new grading scheme.

SB588: This is similar, and also sponsored by Sen. Morales. This bill calls for creating a council to study teacher evaluation. It also specifies that measures of student learning shall not account for more than 20 percent of a teacher’s evaluation. Of course, Skandera has already adopted administrative rules that call for a new evaluation system to start in the fall, and which says teacher evaluations must be 50 percent based on student learning measures.

So, that’s a lot, but that’s all of them! The session is over, so they can’t pass any more education bills. The thing to watch now is which of these the governor signs. And you don’t have to watch it, because I’ll watch it for you and report back.