Legislators encourage extending school year

SANTA FE — New Mexico legislators are doing almost everything they can — short of making it mandatory — to get public schools to extend the school year as part of a strategy to boost academic achievement.

They have passed legislation that would add flexibility to the state’s extended learning and K-5 Plus programs, in addition to authorizing about $280 million to pay for the extra school days, enough for any district or school that wants to participate.

The state budget package also would require districts to explain in writing how they will help students catch up if they decide against extending the school year.

The legislation won approval in the 60-day session and now awaits action by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart, an Albuquerque Democrat and retired teacher, said the state has seen promising results when the school year is extended and students remain with the same teacher.

The strategy is especially critical, she said, after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education over the past year.

“We are facing massive learning loss for our most at-risk students,” Stewart said Monday. “There’s just no getting around it.”

Extended learning typically adds 10 days to the school year for any grade, while K-5 Plus adds 25 days for students in kindergarten through fifth grade.

Amanda Aragon, executive director of NewMexicoKidsCAN, an education advocacy group, said she was disappointed to see this year’s legislation amended to make the programs optional rather than mandatory. Many students, she said, have spent a year away from the classroom.

Aragon also said it’s critical for schools to keep a cohort of students with the same teacher for the extra learning time, rather than just make a “good-faith attempt,” as now stated in the legislation.

“We know that kids learn best when they are in classrooms with their teacher,” Aragon said in an interview. “If we can get more kids more time, I certainly don’t think it will hurt — it’s the approach that makes the most sense.”

Extended learning and K-5 Plus are included in at least two bills sent to the governor:

• Senate Bill 40, which would add flexibility to the programs and make it easier to participate.

• House Bill 2, the main budget plan for the state. The bill includes $110 million from the general fund and $50 million from an education reform fund to pay for in-person extended learning time programs.

Stan Rounds, executive director of the New Mexico Coalition of Educational Leaders and Superintendents’ Association, said the flexibility was important to districts.

He said he expects participation in the programs to increase but that removing the “mandatory” language from the bills was necessary, especially for small districts.

Teachers and school administrators, Rounds said, deserve a chance to decide for themselves whether to extend the year, given the stress of serving students simultaneously online and in-person during the pandemic.

“Our teachers are exhausted now,” Rounds said. “It’s been a very strange, tumultuous year for teachers under these circumstances.”

Senate Minority Whip Craig Brandt, R-Rio Rancho, said the “optional” language also makes sense because some districts returned to in-person learning earlier than others.