Constitutional revision commission: A bill to create a 21-member commission that would propose constitutional amendments to the Legislature cleared the Senate on a party-line vote Wednesday.

Republicans who voted against Senate Bill 308 said lawmakers were giving up their influence by allowing the governor to appoint the proposed commission’s 15 voting members.

“We’re giving … the governor, who’s only going to be here at a maximum 3½ more years if she doesn’t end up in Washington with some kind of appointment,” the authority to appoint all the voting members, said Sen. Cliff Pirtle, R-Roswell, who proposed an amendment to give legislative leaders of both parties in both chambers appointing authority.

“This is something that the Legislature’s in charge of,” Pirtle said. “We’re the ones that are in charge of putting in front of voters constitutional amendments. It’s not up to the governor. It’s a separation of power issue.”

Pirtle’s proposed amendment, which also reduced the number of voting members from 15 to 12, failed.

Sen. Joe Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, one of the sponsors of SB 308, noted the Legislature would be represented on the commission. The six nonvoting members would include two members from the House and two from the Senate, as well as the chief justice of the Supreme Court and the attorney general or their designee.

Cervantes said the state has taken a “piecemeal” approach to reviewing its Constitution.

“Every one of the years that I’ve been here, we talk about changing the way we do things — so modernizing the Legislature, changing our sessions, paying the Legislature, all of these things,” he said. “It’s really time that we take a wholesale reexamination.”

State school board: A proposed constitutional amendment to ask voters whether they want to bring back a statewide board of education is headed to the House after passing the Senate 36-1 Wednesday.

“I think this gives us a great opportunity to revamp our system,” said Sen. Steven Neville, R-Aztec, who is co-sponsoring Senate Joint Resolution 1 with Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque.

New Mexico had a state board of education until 2003, when voters approved a constitutional amendment to create the Public Education Department with a Cabinet-level secretary.

Sen. Bill Soules, a Las Cruces Democrat who is a former public school teacher and elementary principal, said he warned other educators 20 years ago not to vote in support of changing the system.

“Please support this,” he told his colleagues. “I think it adds to stability and allows us to get back to focusing on children instead of politics around education.”

The proposal comes amid ongoing turnover in the Public Education Department under the administration of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who appointed Los Lunas Schools Superintendent Arsenio Romero as the fourth Cabinet secretary last month after Kurt Steinhaus retired at the start of the 60-day legislative session.

Stewart said the proposal “doesn’t have to do with any particular administration. What it has to do with is [every] four or eight years, the education community basically gets whiplash with a new administration and a new secretary. That did not happen when had a partly elected, party appointed state school board that ran the school districts for many years with one superintendent.”

Pay raise for ed assistants: Members of the Senate Education Committee unanimously pushed forward a proposal to raise salaries for educational assistants in the public school system.

House Bill 127 would increase the statutory minimum salary for educational assistants to $25,000 from $12,000 starting in school year 2023-24. 

The bill does not have an appropriation, but HB 127’s fiscal impact report says there is $14.5 million allocated in House Bill 2, the budget bill, for the initiative. 

A Legislative Education Study Committee report on the bill says there are about 5,400 educational assistants working in the state’s public schools.

The report says their salaries vary widely, but the average pay is $22,000, and 28% earn less than $20,000.

HB 127 next goes to the Senate to consider.

Graduation standards: The Senate Finance Committee unanimously endorsed a bill Wednesday that would reduce the number of required credits to graduate from high school to 22 from 24.

The sponsor of House Bill 126, Rep. Andrés Romero, D-Albuquerque, has said the proposal is designed to keep students invested in high school and give them more options for classes that may speak to their post-school career needs.

“Although we’re reducing the amount of elective credit for students, I would say that we’re opening up space within each of the requirements for students to explore their individual interests,” Romero told the committee.

“Overall … we’re tying to open up, modernize and really capture student interest and engagement because one thing that’s lacking at the high school level is engagement,” he added.

“I find that’s very important here, is that it gives the students some buy-in,” said Sen. Nancy Rodriguez, D-Santa Fe. “Students want to know that they have some flexibility, that they have a decision-making ability and that it’s going to be respected as to what they’re going to take.”

Irish eyes: St. Patrick’s Day is still more than two weeks away, but that didn’t stop the House from unanimously voting to make Wednesday “Irish American Day”.

Rep. John Block, R-Alamogordo, said lawmakers could not wait until March 17 for the celebration because that’s the next-to-last-day in this year’s legislative session, which means lawmakers are going to be busy “cramming” bills into the remaining hours of the session.

Several lawmakers spoke about the contributions Irish Americans have made to the country and the state. The memorial says there are over 31 million Irish Americans and about 7% of New Mexicans claim Irish heritage.

Among notable Irish Americans who left their mark on New Mexico — good or bad — are Billy the Kid, Georgia O’Keeffe and Stephen Watts Kearney.

Quotes of the day: ”You know what I’m going to remember March 1st as? Not just ‘Higher Education Day’ but the day that the shortest governor in the United States of America got on her first pair of high heels after her knee surgery.” —Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham during a rally in the Rotunda.

“I don’t know if you should’ve voted on that one.” —Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, after Sen. Leo Jaramillo, D-Española, said Transportation Secretary Ricky Serna, who was confirmed today by the Senate, is his cousin and godbrother.

“It’s going to get busier and busier. You haven’t seen anything yet.” —Paula Ulibarri, sergeant-at-arms for the Senate, during a meeting with legislative staffers.