A. It is the purpose of this compact [11-8-1 to 11-8-11 NMSA 1978] to:

(1) establish and maintain close cooperation and understanding among executive, legislative, professional, educational and lay leadership on a nation-wide basis at the state and local levels;

(2) provide a forum for the discussion, development, crystallization and recommendation of public policy alternatives in the field of education;

(3) provide a clearinghouse of information on matters relating to educational problems and how they are being met in different places throughout the nation, so that the executive and legislative branches of state government and of local communities may have ready access to the experience and record of the entire country, and so that both lay and professional groups in the field of education may have additional avenues for the sharing of experience and the interchange of ideas in the formation of public policy in education;

(4) facilitate the improvement of state and local educational systems so that all of them will be able to meet adequate and desirable goals in a society which requires continuous qualitative and quantitative advance in educational opportunities, methods and facilities.

B. It is the policy of this compact to encourage and promote local and state initiative in the development, maintenance, improvement and administration of educational systems and institutions in a manner which will accord with the needs and advantages of diversity among localities and states.

C. The party states recognize that each of them has an interest in the quality and quantity of education furnished in each of the other states, as well as in the excellence of its own educational systems and institutions, because of the highly mobile character of individuals within the nation, and because the products and services contributing to the health, welfare and economic advancement of each state are supplied in significant part by persons educated in other states.

History: 1953 Comp., § 77-20-2, enacted by Laws 1967, ch. 16, § 284.