SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION

56th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2023

INTRODUCED BY

Pete Campos

 

 

 

 

 

A JOINT RESOLUTION

REQUESTING THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES TO CONSENT TO THE AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION OF NEW MEXICO TO PROVIDE AN ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION FROM THE PERMANENT SCHOOL FUND, CREATED FROM LAND GRANT REVENUES, FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION FOR CHILDREN WHO ARE NOT PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS.

 

     WHEREAS, the United States congress set aside public lands to support the common schools in Section 15 of the Organic Act Establishing the Territory of New Mexico (Act of September 9, 1850, 9 Statutes at Large 446, Chapter 49, as amended); Sections 1 and 4 of the Ferguson Act (Act of June 21, 1898, 30 Statutes at Large 484, Chapter 489); and by Sections 6, 7 and 12 of the Enabling Act for New Mexico (Act of June 20, 1910, 36 Statutes at Large 557, Chapter 310, as amended); and

     WHEREAS, those lands are held in trust, and the revenue derived from investment of the permanent school fund has provided support for public schools around the state for over one hundred ten years; and

     WHEREAS, now, in the twenty-first century, educational and social science research has shown how crucial it is to prepare young children to enter elementary school understanding early concepts of reading, language and mathematics and to have had exposure to art, music, earth science and simple history; and

     WHEREAS, in addition to pre-academic skills, early childhood education develops social and emotional skills, including empathy and self-discipline, that provide preschoolers with the solid foundation of knowledge and skills they need to succeed when they are old enough to go to school; and

     WHEREAS, in light of these research findings, New Mexico has made a commitment to early childhood education by creating a cabinet-level executive department dedicated to children from infancy to age five, and the state's voters passed a constitutional amendment to increase the permanent school fund distribution by one and one-fourth percent, which will be shared between public schools at forty percent of the additional distribution for enhanced instruction for students at risk of failure and teacher compensation and sixty percent that will be expended for early childhood education; and

     WHEREAS, the constitutional amendment safeguards the permanent school fund by ensuring that an additional distribution will not be made if the five-year average fund value falls below seventeen billion dollars ($17,000,000,000);

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the congress of the United States be respectfully petitioned to consent to the amendment of the constitution of New Mexico to allow the use of an additional distribution from the permanent school fund to provide funding for early childhood education, as set forth with particularity in Constitutional Amendment 1 approved by the voters in the 2022 general election; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the congress be respectfully petitioned to amend the Enabling Act for New Mexico to provide for the additional distribution for the purposes specified; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this joint resolution be sent to the president of the United States senate, the speaker of the United States house of representatives and the New Mexico congressional delegation.

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