SANTA FE – A bipartisan group of New Mexico lawmakers is pushing legislation that would allow more students to attend class in person by shifting authority over decisions to reopen from state officials to local school boards.
The bill is a direct challenge to the cautious approach to in-person learning taken by Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I think what families and teachers and administrators want people to know is that they know their district better,” Democratic Rep. Candie Sweetser, who is backing the bill, said in a phone interview Friday.
Schools shut down last March as the first cases of COVID-19 appeared. State officials created plans to allow more in-person learning, but infections spread so fast that most schools were ineligible to open or chose not to. Nearly a year later, the vast majority of students haven’t set foot in a classroom.
The governor’s reopening plan was developed with input from health officials and a scientific modeling team at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Multiple metrics of COVID-19 caseloads, positivity rates and testing rates are tracked, and each county is categorized as part of a color-coded system, with red being the most at risk. Sparsely populated Harding County is the only one of 33 to be classified as green.
“They are so targeted toward numbers, and I have had many people say that certain districts will be a green district,” Sweetser said.
Those counties classified as red often overlapped with GOP strongholds in rural areas where internet connections are lacking and the social and academic costs of remote learning are higher.
GOP House Minority Leader Jim Townsend, is expected to introduce the bill on Monday.
The measure calls for giving local school boards the authority to determine when and for how many days each week a school can offer in-person learning during a public health emergency, according to a draft copy reviewed by the Associated Press.
It also allows teachers and students to opt out of in-person learning and teach or learn remotely.
Republican Sen. David Gallegos hopes the exceptions protecting teacher and student choice will help draw more bipartisan support.
“A lot of the time it’s metro versus rural, and we’re trying to avoid that,” he said.
If passed, the bill would likely be vetoed by Lujan Grisham.
State officials have already carved out some exceptions for in-person learning, allowing K-3 and special education students to attend class in small groups.
Earlier this week, Lujan Grisham and her deputies teased a loosening of the restrictions that could undercut support in the Legislature for a bill that would take away their authority.
“We’re very hopeful that we will be able to expand eligibility for in-person learning services very soon. We know that this is a critical issue,” Public Education Secretary Ryan Stewart told legislators Thursday.