Note: Please excuse the absence of a daily update the last two days.  Your erstwhile editor was tied up in all day and late night meetings on the collective bargaining bill.

Senate Bill 46, the Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act, will likely be heard in the Senate Public Affairs Committee on Tuesday. A long series of negotiations with representatives of public employers has led to a compromise version of Senate Bill 46.  The compormise still contains most of the items we wanted in the bill; it will appear as committee substute next week.  Most management groups including the Coalition of School Administrators, the Municipal League, and League of Counties have agreed not to oppose the legislation. The bill is sponsored by Senate President pro temp Richard Romero and co-sponsored by Democratic Floor Leader Manny Aragon.   House Speaker Ben Lujan will introduce the same version in the House early next week.  Remind all House Members and  Senators to support school employees' collective bargaining rights.  The legislation still contains language that:

(1) forces local board policies adopted since 1991 to comply with most provisions of the new law; 
(2)adopts a scope of bargaining that forces school management to talk about professional and instructional concerns; and 
(3)a impasse resolution procedure that ends in final binding arbitration.
  
These three issues are the heart of the new legislation.  Call all Senators and ask them to support Senate Bill 46, as amended in the Senate Public Affairs Committee next Tuesday. The legislation is sponsored by Senate President pro temp Richard Romero and co-sponsored by Democratic Floor Leader Manny Aragon.  

We are making progress on reaching resolution of budget differences, however we still a ways to go.  Governor Richardson has created a work team with NEA-NM membership to work on differences in his budget proposals and education reform.  The team met twice and will meet again next week.  Publicly,  the Governor continues his demand that school districts use 5% of administration for direct instruction, especially teacher salaries.    He called for moving to the average regional teacher salary next year with a 6% teacher salary increase. 

Our message to legislators should be:

The Governor has made schools a priority.  We need to go further and add additional revenues to school funding to provide equitable salaries for all employees.  We need to use this legislative session to explore addition long-term revenue streams for public schools.

Don't forget these this important event:

House Education Committee Hearing on February 8