The state House of Representatives this week voted 64-3 to approve House Bill 126, which would limit students’ exposure to New Mexico teachers, a move they hope will boost engagement and improve the state’s mediocre graduation rate.
“The proposal would overhaul New Mexico’s high school graduation requirements for the first time since 2007, Romero said, by reducing the number of credit units required to graduate from 24 to 22 units. A similar bill passed the House two years ago but stalled in a Senate committee.”
–“Got math? Bill overhauling NM high school graduation requirements approved by House,” Albuquerque Journal, Feb. 22, 2023
Some critics of the bill have said that “dumbing down” the population to boost graduation numbers doesn’t address the elephant in the room–which is the failure of government education.
Proponents say that New Mexico students are worse off if they don’t graduate high school, so lowering the requirements kills two birds with one stone: it helps otherwise unmotivated kids get a diploma so they can make abuela proud, and it artificially inflates graduation numbers so New Mexico lawmakers can finally claim they accomplished something.
Categories: Legislative Actions
The Conservative New Mexican 
Sure, why do students need anything to graduate? After all I see some school systems have HS grads who can’t read more than an 8th grade level. We do not favors by making education easy.
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Exactly. For $23k per student per year, how are they not scholars by the time they graduate?
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