Education

Rep. Luján understands that ensuring a bright future for our country tomorrow requires investing in our children’s education today. Classrooms should provide a positive learning environment where students are encouraged to challenge themselves and reach their full potential. Rep. Luján believes no child at any level of his or her education should be overlooked, no matter their background or family income level.

Championing Head Start. Rep. Luján advocates for a strong Head Start program. Head Start serves over one million individuals annually, including more than 7,500 New Mexicans. Since its creation, more than 30 million children from working and low-income families received a boost from the Head Start program. Further, the program provides comprehensive services to promote family engagement and access to health and social services, targeted toward children of families earning below the Federal Poverty Level or who have a disability. In 2015, Luján joined with his colleagues in sending a letter to the House Appropriation Committee supporting robust funding for the program and worked across the aisle to celebrate the anniversary of “Project Head Start,” launched 50 years ago by President Lyndon Johnson, by signing onto a resolution marking this anniversary.

“Helping our children succeed begins by putting them on the right path at the earliest ages. For 50 years, Head Start has helped support hard-working families who are trying to get ahead by providing young children with the support they need during critical formative years,” Congressman Luján said. “Every child in New Mexico and throughout our nation deserves a quality education and Head Start has contributed greatly to that effort by ensuring that children have access to comprehensive preschool programs.”

Doing Away with No Child Left Behind. Rep. Luján is proud to have supported the Every Student Succeeds Act. The long-overdue bipartisan legislation replacedthe flawed No Child Left Behind law and includes a number of provisions to strengthen K-12 education. It eliminates No Child Left Behind’s rigid system to provide more flexibility for states, while providing federal oversight that will ensure our most vulnerable students are not neglected. The Every Student Succeeds Act provides resources for states to audit and streamline their standardized testing systems, eliminating unnecessary and duplicative assessments and allowing states to limit the time students spend taking annual tests. In addition, this legislation recognizes the importance of STEM education in our global 21st century economy, and creates a STEM Master Teaching Corps. This will provide critical professional development training for teachers, enhancing their ability to prepare our students and set them on the right track for a career in the STEM fields. 

“We have a responsibility to ensure that every student, regardless of their zip code, has access to a quality education. Our students deserve high expectations, adequate resources, and great teachers,” said Luján. “This bipartisan legislation is long overdue and takes important steps to meet those goals. It eliminates No Child Left Behind’s rigid system to provide more flexibility for states, while providing federal oversight that will ensure our most vulnerable students are not neglected.”

Improving Tribal Education and Preserving Native American Languages in Schools. Graduation rates for American Indians and Alaska Natives are less than 50 percent – the lowest for any ethnic group in the United States. Rep. Luján is working to address this, having introduced the Building Upon Unique Indian Learning and Development (BUILD) Act aimed to remove barriers tribal leaders often encounter in teaching Native languages at school, improve on existing programs and partnerships, and create new incentives to encourage educational success throughout Indian Country. Additionally, Rep. Luján introduced the Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation Act, a bill to provide grants to Native American language educational organizations to preserve disappearing Native languages in Indian Country.

"A good education is essential to helping children get ahead and opening the doors to a brighter future - especially one that embraces the culture and traditions of Native communities," said Luján. "Unfortunately, too many schools in Native American communities lack the resources they need to give their students all that they deserve. From attracting highly qualified teachers to improving school facilities, tribal communities continue to face difficult challenges that impact their ability to provide a better learning environment. Further, we must support language immersion programs that expand fluency in Native languages and strengthen valuable connections between Native students and their culture and communities.”

Helping Families Save for Success. At a time when 70 percent of graduating seniors have an average student loan debt of $28,950, Rep. Luján has been a champion of those planning for their children’s education. He introduced the Save for Success Act, aimed at reforming the American Opportunity College Tax Credit (AOTC) to increase its impact and encourage saving for college. The Save for Success Act improves the AOTC and makes higher education more achievable by allowing families to claim up to $250 of the AOTC every year they save for their child’s future education.  This means that if a family saves a little more than $20 a month and reinvests the tax credit in college savings, they will have an estimated $15,000 saved by age 18 and will still be eligible for $5,500 of the AOTC when they go off to school.  The Save for Success Act effectively doubles the impact of the AOTC from $10,000 credit to one that will have a $20,000 impact on college savings.

“In New Mexico, nearly half of 2014 graduates held an average student debt of almost $19,000.  This mountain of debt is weighing down our young people while making a college education harder to reach for too many families,” Congressman Luján said.  “By reforming the American Opportunity Tax Credit to allow it to help families in a child’s earlier years, we can encourage savings while multiplying the effect of the tax credit, providing a greater bang for the buck.”

Combating Student Loan Debt. According to the Department of Education, borrowers in the U.S. are carrying $1.3 trillion in student loan debt, including $6.1 billion from borrowers in New Mexico. Refinancing loans at today’s lower interest rates would save families an estimated $50 billion nationwide, which they could reinvest in their local economy.Luján cosponsored the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act, which enables student loan borrowers, including those with graduate and parent loans, to refinance their loans at a lower interest rate, reducing their payments and putting thousands of dollars back in their pockets. 

“During this period of historically low interest rates, consumers have had the opportunity to refinance loans on homes, cars and more, locking in rates that will save them money in the years to come,” said Luján. “Unfortunately, student loan borrowers have been left out, unable to refinance their loans and cut their bills. This legislation takes a commonsense step to help address the growing burden of student loan debt faced by so many New Mexicans.”

Promoting STEM and Workforce Development. Rep. Luján introduced the Community College Energy Training Act to support training programs for the wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass energy sectors, as well as occupations in high performance building construction and retrofitting, recycling and waste reduction, water and energy conservation, and sustainable agriculture. This bill will provide $100 million in annual funding that the Secretary of Energy and the Secretary of Labor can draw on to issue grants to support these training programs. In addition, $50 million of this annual authorization will go directly to existing programs and allow community colleges to focus on renewable resources in their region. In addition, Rep. Luján advocates for his STEM Support for Teachers in Education and Mentoring Act, or STEM² Act, which identifies STEM skills needed by businesses and industry and supports curricula and teacher training and mentoring in order to improve student learning in STEM.

“In order for our children and young adults to compete in the global economy they must have the training and skills necessary to compete in the STEM fields,” Congressman Luján said.  “High-quality teachers and a rigorous curriculum that focus on the needs of employers hiring for the jobs of tomorrow is critical.”