American Federation of Teachers New Mexico (AFT NM) President Whitney Holland speaks with KOB 4 Wednesday about some of the bills being considered by the legislature, which cover issues like affirmative consent education, Holocaust and genocide studies in New Mexico schools and financial literacy as a class option. Courtesy/AFT NM
AFT NM News:
The last two days have seen major pieces of legislation advance, which the American Federation of Teachers New Mexico (AFT NM) has supported this legislative session, including changes to high school graduation requirements, salary minimums, and better healthcare coverage for certain groups of educators:
Re-cap of Tuesday, Feb. 7:
House Labor, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee
House Bill 102, carried by Rep. Ray Lara and co-sponsored by Reps. Debbie Sariñana, Natalie Figueroa, and Sen. Harold Pope, Jr., would expand health insurance premium coverage for New Mexico’s K-12 public educators and several New Mexico Public State Insurance Authority-participating higher education institutions (e.g., AFT NM locals Northern New Mexico College and Santa Fe Community College). The legislation would also include those in the Albuquerque Public Schools insurance plan.
Specifically, educators would have their first $10,000 in premiums covered, and any healthcare premiums over $10,000 would be covered at a rate of 60% by the employer. For many educators, this would represent 100% coverage for their insurance plan.
A top priority of Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, AFT NM is in strong support of this legislation. It not only represents more money in the pockets of New Mexico educators, but also helps to remedy the lower levels of coverage for educators, when compared to other state workers. HB 102 previously passed the House Education Committee with a bi-partisan vote of 10-2, and passed the House Labor, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee with unanimous support.
Wednesday, Feb.8:
House Education Committee
House Bill 126, sponsored by Reps. G. Andres Romero and T. Ryan Lane, seeks to adjust the state requirements for high school graduation. This legislation is a result of the work of the Legislative Education Study Committee, and our union has been part of the conversation and feedback as this bill has been developed.
Most notably, HB 126 would remove the Algebra II requirement for graduation and allow local school districts to establish two local units for graduation, which fit the needs of their community. The re-worked graduation requirements also allow for greater inclusion of career technical education as part of a student’s pathway to graduation.
AFT New Mexico President Whitney Holland spoke in favor is HB 126 Wednesday morning in committee. We believe greater flexibility and local decision-making in structuring what a graduating high school senior looks like, we can keep more students in school, reduce absences, and increase graduation rates by offering classes that appeal to our students. HB 126 previously passed the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee on a vote of 8-2, and the House Education Committee followed suit, passing HB 126 with a vote of 11-0.
House Bill 127 is an effort to raise the minimum wage for educational assistants/instructional assistants and their role group to $25,000/year. It is sponsored by Reps. Susan Herrera, Brian Baca, Willie Madrid, Debbie Sariñana, Christine Trujillo, Patricia Roybal Caballero, and Sens. Mimi Stewart and Linda Lopez.
Last academic year, educational assistants/instructional assistants and their role group received a 7% raise and a minimum of $15/hour in compensation. Unfortunately, even with those raises, many licensed classified educators are still working full time for wages that are equivalent to $17,000-$21,000/year. That is simply not enough for the important work being performed, let alone enough to support a family in New Mexico.
AFT New Mexico Executive Vice President Kathy Chavez spoke in strong support of the legislation and the measure passed the House Education Committee with unanimous support. HB 127 previously passed the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee advanced the legislation with unanimous support.
House Bill 199, sponsored by Reps. Brian Baca and House Education Chair Rep. G. Andres Romero, would accomplish three things: increase the at-risk factor for funding purposes to 0.35, increase the responsibility funding factor for principals, and increase the fine arts funding multiplier to 0.055.
AFT New Mexico knows the value of these funding increases, especially the importance of fine arts instruction in our K-12 education settings and spoke in favor if HB 199. The measure passed the House Education Committee with unanimous support.
Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee
Senate Bill 193, sponsored by Senator Mimi Stewart, will increase the contributions to the NM Retiree Healthcare Authority by 0.5%, with a split between employees and employers of 0.17% and 0.33%, respectively. This legislation is critical for our AFT NM retiree constituency, and if enacted, HB 150 would help to better fund the Authority’s obligations to New Mexico retirees.
AFT NM spoke in support of SB 193, and it advanced with unanimous support from the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee this afternoon. HB 150, a mirror bill in the House of Representatives previously passed the House Labor, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee with unanimous support.
Finally, our union had the opportunity to speak with KOB 4 today about some of the bills being considered by the legislature, which cover issues like affirmative consent education, Holocaust and genocide studies in our schools, and financial literacy as a class option.