End-of-session crush hits Legislature

SANTA FE (KRQE) - A lot of unfinished business is left in the legislative session that wraps up when the clock strikes noon on Thursday.

Late Wednesday afternoon the House passed a bill that would hold young students back that don't read well enough.

It's a compromise on the bill the governor has been pushing for more than a year.

The Senate passed a similar version earlier this week, so the bill is getting close to reaching the governor's desk.

The House floor debate lasted more than three hours.

The bill would let the state hold a student back at any grade from kindergarten to third if they cannot read proficiently.

But it also allows the parent to make the final decision with restrictions: the parent has been involved at every step of intervention, and the child has a 95-percent attendance record.

The bill passed 47-23.

Dissenters said the bill was too much to put in place all at once.

"The scary part of this bill is that it's going to be applied to third graders in a year and a half that didn't have all the benefits of the early intervention of first grade and second grade," Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, said. "But we're going to apply all these strict conditions to them."

Proponents called the concept common sense.

"We know scientifically, K-3 they are there to learn to read. They are there to read to learn." Rep. Nora Espinoza, R-Roswell, said. "What's not understandable about that?"

There are a lot of other issues lawmakers could vote on during the evening including bills to reform the Public Regulation Commission, which has been plagued by controversy and criminal convictions.

The bill to strip illegal immigrants of their driver's licenses is all but dead.

Lawmakers could also take up a bill to send $30 million Albuquerque's way to begin the makeover of the Paseo del Norte-Interstate 25 interchange.

The capital outlay bill pays for local projects, but some rural lawmakers aren't convinced the state should pay for an Albuquerque project.