HB 111 will support teachers with training to better serve culturally and linguistically diverse students, particularly in rural New Mexico
SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO — Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed Representative Salazar’s HB 111, “Cultural and Linguistic Education Support,” funding Regional Education Cooperatives (RECs) to provide professional development to staff and teachers for culturally and linguistically responsive instruction.
“New Mexico is not like other states. Our diversity is our strength and it presents unique opportunities for how we leverage our multicultural and multilingual heritage to improve learning outcomes for students, regardless of their zip code,” said Rebecca Blum Martinez, professor and Bilingual/ESL director, Department of Language, Literacy, & Sociocultural Studies, University of New Mexico’s College of Education. “Our education system has long been inequitable and unresponsive to the cultural and linguistic needs of our students, which research shows is critical to enabling students to learn and do well in school.”
HB 111 builds the capacity for Regional Education Cooperatives (RECs) to provide professional development for educators on culturally and linguistically responsive instruction. The bill provides funding for RECs to contract with local experts to offer strategies and techniques to most effectively teach culturally and linguistically diverse learners.
“Diverse students and their teachers across rural New Mexico face distinct challenges, only further compounded by the lack of training opportunities in multilingual and multicultural education,” said Edward Tabet-Cubero with Transform Education NM. “ HB 111 creates a pathway for RECs to better serve students and improve outcomes.”
HB 111 is one key component of the Transform Education NM coalition platform to improve education outcomes for all New Mexico students. The platform is grounded in a multicultural, multilingual framework, to reverse years of inadequate state investment in public education and close achievement gaps for New Mexico’s students, especially low-income, Native American, English-language learners, and students with disabilities.
The bill’s primary sponsor was Representative Tomas Salazar and co-sponsors were Representative Linda Trujillo and Representative Derrick Lente.
Information on the Transform Education NM platform can be found here: https://transformeducationnm.org/our-platform/.
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Transform Education NM is a coalition of educational leaders, families, tribal leaders, and the lawsuit plaintiffs working to transform the state’s education system for our students. To learn more, visit www.transformeducationnm.org.