By Hannah Grover
Estancia Municipal and Mountainair Public school districts high school students may be required to learn Torrance County history in the future.
SB 314 would provide the school districts with $250,000 to develop a curriculum for Torrance County history.
The curriculum would encompass history from pre-Colonial times through the modern era.
Javier Sánchez, a resident of Torrance County, brought the proposal to lawmakers.
“The challenge is that many of our young people, as with young people in a lot of places in rural New Mexico, tend to view their communities, their birth communities, as springboards, as places of departure rather than destination,” he said.
He said the curriculum could offer students “an intricate understanding of the landscape in which they find themselves so that perhaps they can imagine a future for themselves in their birthplaces.”
Sánchez said this could be a standalone course, or if the curriculum may supplement another course. Currently, he said there is a draft syllabus for a course.
The ability to create area-specific courses came through changes in graduation requirements that became law last year.
Sánchez said the new graduation requirements set aside two units of the 24 required for graduation that each school board can develop based on local discretion. He said a Torrance County history course would fit as one of those two units.
While SB 314 initially called for the funding to go to the Torrance County Farm and Livestock Bureau, bill sponsor Sen. Liz Stefanics, D-Cerillos, brought an amendment to the Senate Education Committee that changed it to the school districts. This amendment came due to concerns that the appropriation could violate the anti-donation law.
SB 314 passed the Senate Education Committee on a 7-2 vote. Those in opposition expressed concern that it could create a precedent and other school districts will seek similar levels of funding for courses.