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A MEMORIAL
REQUESTING THE LEGISLATIVE FINANCE COMMITTEE AND THE OFFICE
OF EDUCATION ACCOUNTABILITY TO CONDUCT AN AUDIT OF THE
ALBUQUERQUE SCHOOL DISTRICT.
WHEREAS, with approximately ninety-four thousand six
hundred students, Albuquerque public schools is the largest
school district in the state and one of the largest in the
country; and
WHEREAS, it is a majority Hispanic school district,
with fifty-four and one-half percent Hispanic, just over
thirty percent Anglo, about five percent Native American,
almost four percent African American and about two and
one-half percent Asian students; and
WHEREAS, the school district encompasses the south
valley, the southeast heights, the far northeast heights and
the west mesa areas of the Albuquerque metropolis and
includes the entire range of the socioeconomic scale, with
about forty percent of its elementary and middle school
students receiving free or reduced-fee lunch; and
WHEREAS, the state equalization guarantee includes a
cost differential that provides school districts with
additional funds based on certain characteristics that
describe students at risk of dropping out, including
mobility, family income, English language learner and percent
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of students who receive title I funding; and
WHEREAS, because these characteristics are accurate
predictors of the number of students who are at risk of not
completing high school, it is important that the state
funding for this purpose be spent in the schools and
classrooms that generate the funds; and
WHEREAS, the schools in the Rio Grande high school,
Highland high school and Albuquerque high school clusters
have large numbers of students who come from low
socioeconomic backgrounds; and
WHEREAS, anecdotal information indicates that these
schools are not receiving the financial aid they generated
from their large numbers of at-risk students and, therefore,
are hampered in their ability to provide the intensive
services that at-risk students need if they are to stay in
school and graduate;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE
STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the legislative finance committee
and the office of education accountability be requested to
conduct an audit of the Albuquerque public schools to
determine how, to what purposes and to what schools state and
federal funds are allocated and to determine whether the
district is putting its at-risk funding into the schools with
the highest dropout rates and other indicators of large
at-risk student populations; and
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BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
transmitted to the director of the legislative finance
committee and the director of the office of education
accountability.