1. A. The department shall administer the Grow Your Own Teachers Act and shall promulgate rules to carry out the provisions of that act. The department shall consult the public education department any time the department promulgates rules relating to the Grow Your Own Teachers Act.
2. B. Scholarships shall be awarded to qualified school employees. Qualifications shall be determined by rule of the department.
3. C. The department shall allocate money to public post-secondary educational institutions based on a student need formula calculated according to income reported on the free application for federal student aid and on the number of students enrolled in each public education department-approved teacher preparation program at a New Mexico public post-secondary educational institution.
4. D. Public post-secondary educational institutions shall make awards to qualifying eligible students based on financial need in an amount not to exceed six thousand dollars ($6,000) per year for not more than five years as determined by rule of the department.
5. E. Money for the scholarship shall be placed in an account at the public post-secondary educational institution in the name of the school employee, and the money may be drawn upon to pay educational expenses charged by the institution, including tuition, fees, books and course supplies.

History: Laws 2019, ch. 230, § 6; 2021, ch. 11, § 5.

ANNOTATIONS

The 2021 amendment, effective July 1, 2021, expanded the scholarship program eligibility to allow school employees, as defined in the Grow Your Own Teachers Act, to qualify, and required the higher education department to consult the public education department any time the higher education department promulgates rules related to the Grow Your Own Teachers Act"; and in Subsection A, added the last sentence, and changed "educational assistants" to "school employees" throughout.

Temporary provisions. — Laws 2019, ch. 230, § 9 provided:

A. At any time before releasing proposed initial rules for the Grow Your Own Teachers Act, the higher education department shall consult with the public education department, and the two departments shall convene or survey a geographically representative sample of educational assistants who want to pursue higher education and teachers who began their education careers as educational assistants to hear problems and concerns based on their experiences, challenges and expectations in pursuing higher education in general and teacher licensure in particular. The higher education department shall take those problems and concerns into account when issuing proposed rules.

B. The public education department shall report the findings from the consultation or survey of educational assistants and teachers who began their career as educational assistants to all educational assistants in school districts, charter schools, constitutional special schools, state institutions and state agencies that employ educational assistants and shall include copies of the Grow Your Own Teachers Act and the proposed rules.