Legislative Finance Committee

The members of the Legislative Finance Committee this morning were saddened to learn of the death of Larry Larrañaga, a former committee member who served as a Republican state representative from Albuquerque from 1994 until his resignation earlier this month.

Few inpatient behavioral health options are covered by Medicaid, forcing most of the cost for residential and hospital care onto the state, but a pending revamp of the state's Medicaid program could expand behavioral health coverage all along the continuum of care.

Despite evidence that high-quality extended learning time can improve student performance, the number of instructional days in New Mexico, where 70 percent of public school students are at risk of failing, has dropped over the last decade.

New Mexico's colleges are making progress on teacher education programs, with requirements for higher grade point averages and better scores on the teacher licensing exams, but colleges could provide better in-classroom training and say they need more resources.

State agencies had mixed results on performance measures in FY18, with inmate-on-inmate violence in the state prisons doubled in FY18, the Taxation and Revenue Department struggled with vacancies, and public school students show some improvement on standardized tests.