| Critical decisions are being made at the legislature about the future of public schools for our children. As you know, children learn better when they have an education that is culturally and linguistically relevant to them. Several bills are advancing that would create and ensure a multicultural and multilingual education in New Mexico and the pipeline of teachers needed to support it.
We urgently need your help to call key elected leaders today to ensure these bills are funded or they might not make it past the House committee that will determine the budget. These bills are necessary for our students and would help bring the state into compliance with the Yazzie/Martinez court ruling that found the state has failed to provide a sufficient education to our children. Please call these key elected leaders listed below TODAY and ask them to support House Bills 111, 120, 159, and 516 for a multicultural education and to ensure they are fully funded in HB 2 (General Appropriation Act).
Below are short descriptions of each bill. HB 111—Cultural and Linguistic Education Support (Reps. Tomás Salazar and Linda Trujillo): Builds the capacity for Regional Education Cooperatives (RECs) to provide professional development for educators on culturally and linguistically responsive instruction. HB111 would provide funding for RECs to contract with local experts to build their capacity to provide professional development in strategies and techniques to most effectively teach culturally and linguistically diverse learners. HB 120—Bilingual Teacher Preparation Act (Rep. Tomás Salazar): Increases the amount of bilingual and TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages)-endorsed teachers in New Mexico by allowing for the Higher Education Department to provide grants for students seeking degrees and/or endorsements in bilingual/multicultural education or TESOL, prioritizing current bilingual educational assistants, bilingual seal recipients, and speakers of indigenous languages. HB 159—Multicultural Education Framework (Reps. Tomás Salazar and Christine Trujillo): Establishes a multicultural, multilingual framework for public education that aligns the duties and powers of the New Mexico Indian Education Act, Hispanic Education Act, and Bilingual Multicultural Education Act, to address the unique cultural and linguistic needs of New Mexico students. HB 516—American Indian Educational Outcomes (Reps. Derrick Lente, Christine Trujillo, Linda Trujillo, Roberto “Bobby”Gonzales, and Patricia Lundstrom): Makes appropriations to state institutions of higher education to improve educational outcomes for American Indian public school and higher education students and families. |