A. There is created in the state treasury the "nurse educators fund". The state treasurer shall deposit in the fund all amounts appropriated or credited to the fund. The fund shall be administered by the higher education department, which shall charge not more than a five percent administrative fee. Earnings from investment of the fund shall accrue to the credit of the fund. Any balance in the fund at the end of any fiscal year shall remain in the fund for appropriation by the legislature.

B. The purpose of the fund is to enable the attainment of bachelor of science, master of science, doctor of nursing practice and doctor of philosophy degrees in nursing programs by nursing educators employed by a public post-secondary educational institution and registered nurses seeking employment as nursing educators in a public post-secondary educational institution.

C. The higher education department shall develop rules for continuing employment or pay-back provisions for current and future nursing educators who use the fund.

History: Laws 2005, ch. 136, § 1; 2015, ch. 41, § 1; 2015, ch. 47, § 1.

The 2015 amendment, effective June 19, 2015, expanded the purpose of the nurse educators fund to allow registered nurses who are seeking employment as nurse educators to use the fund to obtain a higher degree; in Subsection A, in the first sentence, after "created in the", deleted "commission on higher education" and added "state treasury", in the second sentence, after "appropriated", added "or credited", in the third sentence, after "administered by the", deleted "commission on" and after "higher education", added "department", and in the last sentence, after "legislature", deleted "as provided in this section"; in Subsection B, after "fund is to", deleted "enhance the ability of college and university employed nursing educators to obtain" and added "enable the attainment of", after "master of science", added "doctor of nursing practice", and after "philosophy degrees", added the remainder of the sentence; and in Subsection C, after "The", deleted "commission on", after "higher education", added "department", and after "provisions for", added "current and future".

Laws 2015, ch. 41, § 1 and Laws 2015, ch. 47, § 1, both effective June 19, 2015, enacted identical amendments to this section. The section was set out as amended by Laws 2015, ch. 47, § 1. See 12-1-8 NMSA 1978.