Advisory councils press for steady funding as bilingual and Hispanic programs show improved student belonging

Natasha Davalos, an education equity policy analyst, opened the Legislative Education Study Committee session in Gallup with an overview of two statutory advisory bodies: the Bilingual Multicultural Education Advisory Council (BMEAC) and the Hispanic Education Advisory Council (HEAC). The councils advise the Public Education Department on curriculum, instruction, assessment, teacher preparation and family partnerships under the Bilingual Multicultural Education Act (1973) and the Hispanic Education Act (2010, amended 2025).

The advisory councils described how advisements are developed and delivered: research and stakeholder engagement, subcommittee consensus, partner feedback, and a written response from department staff. Rita Holguin, a fourth-grade bilingual teacher and BMEAC secretary, said the council functions as a statewide “think tank” that produces annual advisements aimed at improving bilingual/multicultural programs and recommended creating a calendar to ensure advisements are actionable early in the legislative cycle.

Julia Rosa Emsley, Hispanic Education Liaison, described the HEAC’s recent work and the Hispanic Education Bureau (created in 2021) that coordinates implementation. Emsley said internal bureau analysis found students who participated in HEA programming reported higher ethnic identity and school belonging and lower chronic absenteeism than comparable students not in that programming. "When they're interested in something, when they want to belong to something, they show up, they participate and they perform," Dr. Amador told the committee, summarizing program impacts observed at student events.

Committee members focused much of the question-and-answer on funding, accountability and representation. Davalos and other PED staff walked the committee through historical direct appropriations cited in the brief: a $2,500,000 special allocation for bilingual programs in an earlier year, a $5,000,000 direct appropriation in FY24 for bilingual work followed by no direct line in FY25, and HEA direct appropriations of $500,000 in FY23, $1,000,000 in FY24, and $500,000 in a subsequent year. PED staff explained they use monitoring visits, reimbursement documentation and small subgrants to verify funds reach student-facing programming rather than creating positions.

Members raised governance and equity concerns. Senator Figueroa and others noted BMEAC reported six vacancies — four of them tribal seats — and urged stronger outreach and appointment strategies to ensure tribal and special-education voices are present. Emsley and other council members acknowledged the appointment challenges and asked legislators to recommend candidates. Emsley also warned that bureau staffing currently depends on nonrecurring appropriations, saying the positions "depend solely on the nonrecurring appropriations you all support or don't support" and that, in theory, the bureau could be eliminated if future legislatures do not fund it.

Committee members requested more data. Representative Baca asked for the number and trend of dual-language programs, counts of bilingual-certified teachers and the number of students earning a bilingual seal on diplomas; Davalos and bureau staff committed to supplying those figures and noted a fuller bilingual-education briefing will be scheduled in October in Las Cruces.

What happens next: the committee asked PED to return to LESC in October with program counts, funding flow details (including how SEG dollars are used), monitoring results and options to stabilize advisory-council membership and staffing. The committee approved the minutes and the agenda later in the session and adjourned for lunch.