Friday Veto Breakdown

As my colleague Deborah Baker reported in Saturday’s paper, Gov. Susana Martinez issued a flurry of vetoes on Friday. Among them were seven education bills, which Deborah summarized at the bottom of the story, but which I’m going to give a little more detail about here. I’m using summaries from my past blog posts about these bills, since I wrote a little bit about each of them during and after the session.

HB192: Currently, New Mexico teachers receive a pay increase for getting their National Board Certification. I’ve written about the process here and elsewhere. This bill would extend that pay increase to other licensed school employees, not just teachers. Vetoed.

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

HB481 is no surprise, since Martinez’s spokesman told me a couple of weeks ago that she planned to veto the bill. I wrote about it here. Vetoed, as promised.

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

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. Vetoed.

SB587: 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. Vetoed.

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, Education Secretary-designate Hanna 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. Vetoed.

Martinez released two veto statements, one with the House bills and one with the Senate bills, but the statements were mostly the same and are best summarized by this opening paragraph: