LESC News:

LAS CRUCES — The Legislative Education Study Committee (LESC) will meet in Las Cruces from Oct. 15–17. Hearings will be held at Organ Mountain High School on October 15 and New Mexico State University’s (NMSU’s) Stan Fulton Center on Oct. 16 & 17. The three-day meeting will bring together lawmakers, educators, and state officials to discuss ongoing public education initiatives.

The agenda for Oct. 15 includes the release of statewide assessment results from school year 2024-2025 by the Public Education Department (PED) and updates on the public education reform fund. The first day will also feature a superintendent panel with district leaders from Las Cruces Public Schools, Truth or Consequences Municipal Schools, Hatch Valley Public Schools, and Cloudcroft Municipal Schools.

On the second day, Oct. 16, the committee will hear updates about the state’s educator preparation pipeline, residency pathways being used to prepare high-quality future teachers, and statewide out-of-school time programming. Lawmakers will also visit NMSU and hear from university leaders and faculty about ongoing efforts to strengthen the educator workforce and expand clinical preparation opportunities through NMSU’s College of Health, Education, and Social Transformation.

The committee will close on Oct. 17 with updates on the Martinez-Yazzie consolidated lawsuit motion and PED’s draft Action Plan, federal funding, and preliminary fiscal year (FY27) budget and legislative proposals ahead of the upcoming 2026 legislative session.

Advisory: For additional information on the committee meeting, InformED (the LESC newsletter) contains short stories on some agenda items and is usually available a few days before the meeting at https://www.nmlegis.gov/Entity/LESC/Newsletter. The committee meeting can be streamed online at http://sg001-harmony.sliq.net/00293/harmony and reports discussed during the meeting are available under handouts at https://www.nmlegis.gov/Entity/LESC/Committee_Information.