Despite a busy schedule, U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman plans to return to his home state for what he considers one of his most important annual appointments.
The New Mexico Democrat will visit UNM’s Continuing Education Auditorium Monday for the first of three installments of his Student Leadership Institute, which is a public policy conference for local high school students.
During the seminars, Bingaman’s policy advisers will engage students in discussions on ways to improve education, health care, economic growth and other key New Mexico issues. The students will offer ideas on how to make New Mexico a better place to grow up.
Bingaman will take these ideas and incorporate them into legislation he will push in Congress this year.
“The goal of this program is to bring high school students together to talk about what is pending in Washington,” he said.
While on campus, Bingaman will also answer UNM students’ questions during a town hall meeting in Johnson Center’s Room B-100 at 9:30 a.m.
“Both the town hall meeting and the Student Leadership Institute is a great way for students to learn about policy and for me to learn from them what is important and what legislation is needed,” he said.
Bingaman said former Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., told him about student seminars he used to sponsor, prompting Bingaman to set up a similar program in New Mexico.
“I really liked the idea, and I knew that it was important to help students understand the issues shaping the public policy that governs their lives,” Bingaman said. “This is our 13th year doing the program, and I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish with it.”
He said many students have told him the program has been helpful for them. Bingaman said the UNM forums have been useful as well.
“I think the forums for UNM students are great because we get good feedback, and it is interesting for me to get different points of view and think about questions I had never thought about before,” he said.
Bingaman is known in many circles as the “education senator” and is living up to the title this Legislative session by focusing heavily on education.
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“We’ve got a whole range of proposals pending right now because we’re about to mark up the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which is the major federal legislation on education,” he said. “I’ve proposed legislation to improve teacher quality, reduce class size, reduce the dropout rate, provide more technology for schools and increase the Advanced Placement instruction in high schools. There are a great many issues we’re trying to address.”
Bingaman will spend the rest of the week in the state at similar Student Leadership Seminars in Santa Fe, Roswell and Las Cruces.
He will also distribute information about internship programs with his office both throughout New Mexico and in Washington, D.C.
