Senate Education backs substitute to make community‑school grants flexible, renames fund for Jeanne Oakes

Senate Bill 387, which revises the Community Schools Fund, was passed out of the Senate Education Committee after the panel adopted a committee substitute that makes two principal changes: it permits grants of "up to" $150,000 rather than requiring fixed $150,000 awards, and it renames the fund the Dr. Jeanne Oakes Memorial Community Schools Fund.

Sponsor Senator Figueroa explained the committee substitute reduces the original bill’s scope from three changes to two, retaining the fund‑flexibility change and the memorial naming while postponing statutory updates to the formal definition of "community schools" for later work. The change from mandatory $150,000 awards to "up to" that amount is intended to allow the fund to distribute smaller awards when the corpus is insufficient to support full grants.

The measure drew broad support from school superintendents, the New Mexico Community School Coalition, local districts and charter school advocates. Witnesses from Albuquerque Public Schools, Penasco Independent School District and Bernalillo County described how community schools uses wraparound services and expanded learning to improve attendance, student outcomes and family engagement. Supporters urged the committee to preserve the program’s whole‑school, locally driven focus and to maintain the Community School Coalition’s role in advising policy.

After public testimony the committee voted to advance the committee substitute on a unanimous voice/roll call. The bill will proceed to the next committee (Finance) for fiscal consideration as appropriate.