SENATE BILL 253

48th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2007

INTRODUCED BY

Cynthia Nava

AN ACT

MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE STATE MATCH FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION ENHANCEMENT AND TEACHER OUTREACH.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     Section 1. APPROPRIATION.--

          A. Three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000) is appropriated from the general fund to the board of regents of New Mexico state university for expenditure in fiscal year 2008 and subsequent fiscal years to match a grant from the Howard Hughes medical institute for the following purposes:

                (1) to enhance undergraduate science education for the life sciences, primarily in the colleges of agriculture and home economics and arts and sciences;

                (2) to provide stipends for approximately two hundred thirty New Mexico high school teachers to take summer refresher courses in chemistry, biology, physics, geology and astronomy;

                (3) to purchase approximately one hundred sixty science activity kits for high school teachers to enhance their effectiveness in teaching sciences; and

                (4) to create a portable molecular biology laboratory that will travel, along with an appropriate instructor, to high schools in New Mexico to provide examples of science instruction not readily available to high school programs.

          B. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of a fiscal year shall not revert to the general fund.

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