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Senate panel approves pilot program to buy AEDs and train staff at rural New Mexico schools
Summary
After testimony from the American Heart Association and school advocates, the Senate Education Committee amended and advanced a bill that creates a rural school AED training pilot and increases funding from $150,000 to $450,000 to cover three years and more sites.
The Senate Education Committee voted to advance a substitute of Senate Bill 4 94 that funds a pilot program to place automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and provide CPR/AED training in rural New Mexico high schools.
Sponsor Senator Peter Campos said the bill would appropriate funds to the Public Education Department (PED) to contract with national organizations that publish resuscitation guidelines and to supply equipment and training to rural and frontier high schools where emergency medical services can be 45 minutes to an hour away. “Every minute that's not rendered CPR to a victim of cardiac arrest, the chances of survival goes down by 10 percent,” Mahesh Sita of the American Heart Association told the committee.
Committee members raised practical questions about scale and cost. Witnesses estimated a basic AED costs about $1,200 to $1,500 and lasts five to eight years, with annual maintenance and pad replacements costing roughly $100. Sponsor and witnesses described the bill as a pilot targeted to fewer than 100 rural high schools outside large districts; PED would administer the awards and follow procurement rules.
Senator Andrea Figueroa proposed and the committee adopted an amendment to change the appropriation from $150,000 for one year to $450,000 covering fiscal years 2026 through 2028; members said the intent is to provide a three‑year window for training, device deployment and maintenance. The amendment also revised statutory language to reflect multiple fiscal years. Committee members pressed whether the growth fund has capacity; the sponsor said the GROW fund currently holds unappropriated balances being considered in the budget process and the measure would stage spending to provide stability for the pilot.
Senators expressed support for the underlying goals and cited districts where EMS response times are long. The committee advanced the amended bill with a do‑pass recommendation.
Questions left for implementation included whether awards would prioritize high schools, which district or school staff would be trained (coaches, nurses, security staff, etc.), how devices would be procured (state purchasing or RFP), and how maintenance would be funded after the pilot period.
