A. Corps members shall be encouraged to increase their opportunities for employment by education and training. Corps personnel shall seek cooperative agreements with community colleges, vocational schools and other institutions of higher learning in an effort to aid corps members in achieving their educational goals. Corps personnel shall provide opportunities for corps members to achieve basic education, literacy and high school or equivalency diplomas.

B. On completion of employment, a corps member who has twelve full months of employment as a corps member during a period not to exceed forty-eight months and who has received satisfactory evaluations throughout the corps member's employment is entitled to receive as additional compensation five hundred dollars ($500) or a one thousand five hundred dollar ($1,500) educational tuition voucher at a New Mexico institution of higher education. The educational tuition voucher is valid for two years. If the corps member receives a satisfactory employment evaluation and the program manager determines that the corps member's employment was less than twelve months in a four-year period due to circumstances beyond the corps member's control, the program manager may authorize a partial compensation payment or a partial educational tuition voucher to that corps member.

History: Laws 1992, ch. 91, § 9; 2001, ch. 235, § 1; 2005, ch. 88, § 1.

The 2005 amendment, effective June 17, 2005, increased the amount of education vouchers to one thousand five hundred dollars.

The 2001 amendment, effective June 15, 2001, in Subsection B, substituted "twelve full months of employment" for "one full year of continuous employment"; inserted "during a period not to exceed forty-eight months"; deleted "public" preceding "institution of higher education" and substituted "less than twelve months in a four-year period" for "completed in less than a year".