45th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2001

RELATING TO EDUCATION; CREATING A STUDENT TEACHER SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM; CREATING A FUND; MAKING AN APPROPRIATION.

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

Section 1. STUDENT TEACHER SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM ESTABLISHED.--

A. In order to encourage individuals to enter the teaching profession and to retain teachers in New Mexico, the commission on higher education shall establish and administer a student teacher scholarship program.

B. The commission on higher education shall set forth explicit guidelines for administration of the student teacher scholarship program, including guidelines to:

(1) develop standardized methods to identify eligible scholarship recipients;

(2) distribute money from the student teacher scholarship fund to state board of education-approved teacher training institutions;

(3) develop criteria for selection of scholarship recipients, which shall include academic performance, campus involvement, letters of recommendation and personal commitment to the teaching profession;

(4) pay full tuition for scholarship recipients for the semesters in which they are student teaching;

(5) verify that scholarship recipients are employed as full-time teachers in public or state board of education-approved private school settings in New Mexico for at least one year after completion of student teaching;

(6) provide for the repayment within one year of all scholarship funds granted a scholarship recipient if that recipient does not comply with the provisions of Paragraph (5) of this subsection; and

(7) ensure that recipients comply with all rules adopted by the commission on higher education for the scholarship program.

Section 2. STUDENT TEACHER SCHOLARSHIP FUND CREATED.--The "student teacher scholarship fund" is created in the state treasury. Money in the fund shall not revert to the general fund at the end of a fiscal year. Money appropriated to the fund or accruing to it through gifts, grants, bequests and devices shall be deposited in the fund. The fund shall be invested as other state funds are invested and income from investment of the fund shall be credited to the fund. Money in the fund is appropriated to the commission on higher education to carry out the purposes of the student teacher scholarship program. Disbursements from the fund shall be made upon warrants drawn by the secretary of finance and administration pursuant to vouchers signed by the executive director of the commission on higher education or his designee. The commission shall use no more than three percent of the money in the fund for administration. The remaining money in the fund shall be used to carry out the student teacher scholarship program.

Section 3. APPROPRIATION.--Seven hundred thousand dollars ($700,000) is appropriated from the general fund to the student teacher scholarship fund for expenditure in fiscal year 2002 and subsequent fiscal years to carry out the provisions of Section 1 of this act. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of a fiscal year shall not revert to the general fund.