In October, the New Mexico House of Representatives carried through on its commitment to take up a study of media literacy between sessions, after passing a Memorial during the spring session.

House Memorial 49 was sponsored by Rep. Antonio “Moe” Maestas with the support of Media Literacy Now Chapter Leader Pamela Pereyra. After a hearing on March 6, the Memorial passed the House by a vote of 44-0 with bipartisan support.

On October 24, Pamela organized the presentation before the New Mexico Legislative Education Study Committee, which lays the groundwork for a more comprehensive bill we expect to be introduced in the next regular session (in 2019).

Here’s a clip of the sponsor, Rep. Maestas, speaking before the committee.

A previous hearing on House Memorial 49 was well attended with many teachers and others speaking in favor. See it here: The hearing begins at minute 9:48:48

In Arizona, our legislation received bi-partisan support, with sponsorship by Sen. Steve Montenegro (R) and Sen. David Bradley (D), thanks to the advocacy of Media Literacy Now Chapter Leader Mark Bordine. Legislators did not take up the bill this year, but we’re working to get it reintroduced in 2018.

In California, Chapter Leaders Lisa Levine and Brooklyn Levine supported three bills with hearing testimony and grassroots action, including the successful Media Arts bill, which has a goal of increasing media literacy through arts education.

In Washington, the legislature funded some of the recommendations of the advisory counsel that convened to implement the original bill passed in 2016. Lawmakers passed a bill to fund research on the state of media literacy education in Washington, and to begin making available resources in an online site. The Washington legislation was sponsored by Sen. Marko Liias with the support of our partner, Action for Media Education.

See the hearing here:

See the News page for other news this year, and the Legislation page for a wrap-up of the state of Media Literacy policy as of December 2017.