En Lace Newsletter Jan.07issueone

February 2007

Vol. 100

Issue One

ENLACE in House Bill 3, which is the main education funding bill. UPDATES:

NEWSLETTER Greetings to the ENLACE familia! This is the first of three reports on the legislative policy priorities that you - the ENLACE Parents, Students and Staff identified at the November statewide meeting: • Counselors, • Lottery Scholarship, • Family Youth Resource Act (FYRA), • Bilingual Education and , • Curriculum. NEWS AND UPDATES! Our comprehensive bills in the Senate and House are called ‘ENLACE at Certain Schools’. The bills ask for $2 million to be distributed directly and equally to five regions in NM. Senator Cynthia Nava (D Las Cruces) who is the Chairperson of the Senate Education Committee is sponsoring Senate Bill 77. Senate Bill 500 is sponsored by Senator Bernadette Sanchez (D – Albuquerque) who was just appointed to the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee. On the House side, Representative Rick Miera (D – Albuquerque) who is on the House Education Committee will sponsor House Bill 325. Senate Bill 77 will be heard on Monday February 5 at 8:00 am in the Senate Education Committee, room 311. We have a number of ENLACE staff, parents and students headed up to Santa Fe ready to testify in support of this bill. We are working with Representative Rick Miera on acquiring co-sponsors for House Bill 325. He is also attempting to include

Counselors – A memorial will be introduced, preferably by a legislator from Las Cruces, to fund NMSU Exito / ENLACE students to research and analyze the alarmingly high counselor-to-student ratios in the high schools. For example, some initial figures show that there is one counselor for every 450 students. Due to the unfunded mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act, new responsibilities of testing now rest on counselors. This memorial will propose that students report their findings to the Legislative Education Committee (LESC). Lottery Scholarship - On Wednesday January 31 the Senate Education Committee unanimously passed a bill, Senate Bill 364, sponsored by Senator Michael Sanchez (D Belen), that would boost the Lottery Scholarship’s share to at least 30 percent. Currently 25 percent of lottery revenues go to the scholarship fund. This bill is intended to lower the administrative costs. The bill gained a large amount of positive publicity. The New Mexican in Santa Fe ran this headline: “Students Back Plan for More Lottery Money,” and The Albuquerque Journal noted that the “Scholarship Fund May Get Boost”. ENLACE was a key support group in the committee on Wednesday. ENLACE representatives including Brenda Chavez, Erwin Rivera, Irma Chavira, Velia Duran, Ana Salaz, Christina Tapia, Chrissy Baldonado, Antoinette Gabaldon, Eleanor Estrada, Diana Montoya-Boyer and Felicia Lujan all gave testimony. Following the end of the Senate Education Committee Senator Sanchez approached the ENLACE group to express his gratitude! The Chairperson of Senate Education Committee, Cynthia Nava, was thoroughly impressed with the number of parents and students who spoke in support of this bill.

FYRA Grant (Family Youth Resource Act) – Presently we do not have any information pertaining to this bill. We will keep you updated. Bilingual Education – ENLACE supports and endorses House Bill 67 entitled NM Highlands Medical – Health interpreters sponsored by Representative Rick Miera. This bill will increase the number of trained and certified Spanish-English interpreters who can work with health providers throughout New Mexico. Curriculum – The AVID legislation is to be carried on behalf of Governor Richardson by Representative Rick Miera and is House Bill 68. Senator Nava will carry it on the Senate side but has not been assigned a bill number as of yet. We will keep you informed as to the status of this bill. The following is not one of our priorities, however it impacts our ENLACE families and we feel a responsibility to share this information with you. On January 29, the House Judiciary Committee heard House Joint Memorial 13 entitled ‘Oppose Creation of National ID Card’ sponsored by Representative Ken Martinez (D – Grants) and Senator Michael Sanchez. This memorial opposes the REAL ID Act which requires additional qualifications for Driver’s Licenses, one of which would be US citizenship.

WRAP – UP: Early into the legislative session we have seen small victories! - Lottery Scholarship fund increase was passed by the Senate Education Committee. -

Many Senators Representatives have co-sponsor the bills funds coming for services to New students

and agreed to that keep ENLACE Mexico’s

-

We’ve worked together as one voice and ENLACE is being recognized as a positive force in the education of our New Mexico youth.

A NEW FACE At this time I would also like to take a moment to introduce myself as the editor of this ENLACE newsletter. My name is Diana Montoya-Boyer and I am a graduate of UNM with a degree in Psychology and Criminology. I am currently working as a Legislative Policy Analyst along side Erwin Rivera in Santa Fe to track our bills, gain support for them and keep you informed of their status. Please feel free to contact me with information that can strengthen our outreach to legislators in Santa Fe. I am enjoying this work and hope to meet you along the way! Look for the upcoming newsletters. It’s because of all of your individual efforts that we have had and will continue to have success in the legislature. Mil Gracias. Diana Montoya-Boyer, [email protected]