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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Hall

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1-25-07

HB 369

SHORT TITLE Outdoor Classroom Program

SB

ANALYST Woods

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

NFI

500.0

Non-Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to HB220

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD)

Public Education Department (PED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 369 seeks to appropriate $500,000 from the general fund to the State Parks Program

of the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department for expenditure in fiscal year 2008 to

support a statewide public school outdoor classroom program. The program is intended to en-

courage participation and improve performance in math and science. Any unexpended or unen-

cumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2008 shall revert to the general fund.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

PED indicates that while the appropriation is made to the State Parks Division of EMNRD, there

will be costs for Public Education Department – especially in the Math and Science and Rural

Education Bureaus – in assisting EMNRD in the development of the teacher education training

program, assisting in recruitment of teachers and evaluation of the project. An estimation of

time required to support this legislation would be .15 Administrator A @ $25.50 per hour and

House Bill 369 – Page

2

benefits. The cost of time and benefits would be $10,383. Monitoring the project would include

travel @ .32 for 750 miles and per diem for 4 nights at $85 for a total of $ 580. The total cost of

the time, benefits and travel to support this project will be $10,963.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

EMNRD indicates that HB369 stems from a study prepared by the State Parks Division (SPD)

and the Public Education Department (PED) required by SJM 24, which passed the Legislature

in 2005. SJM 24 requested SPD and PED to evaluate opportunities for collaboration. This

study, “Making New Mexico Schools Work Outdoors," was presented to the Legislative Educa-

tion Study Committee in October 2005, as required by SJM 24. SPD and PED found potential

for partnerships that can improve the education of New Mexico’s children, benefit state parks,

and better serve the state in general. The joint study cites recent research indicating outdoor, in-

teractive education, can increase student academic achievement, improve test scores, reduce dis-

cipline problems, build citizenry skills and resource stewardship ethics, and increase teacher job

satisfaction.

Each of the 34 state parks is a potential outdoor classroom, encompassing a variety of natural

and cultural resource themes, positioned for a hands-on, interdisciplinary approach. In 2005,

however, only 5 percent of New Mexico’s K-12 students visited state parks as part of their

school program. This situation reflects great, unrealized potential as 80 percent of schools are

within 30 minutes of a state park.

The SJM 24 study recommended the establishment of the “New Mexico Outdoor Classroom"

initiative, the mission of which is: “State Parks and PED will improve academic achievement

and encourage resource stewardship by engaging New Mexico’s children in heritage education."

The study proposed non-recurring funding for a pilot project to launch and test the initiative.

The pilot project would consist of:

•

Outdoor Education Institutes – To provide short teacher training institutes, develop

curriculum-based programming, and build partnerships between parks and teachers.

•

Teacher Resource Program – To provide hands-on teaching materials for children, ex-

pand the State Parks Junior Ranger program, develop on-line educational programming,

and augment staffing to deliver the programs.

•

Kids-to-Parks Grant Program – To provide transportation funding for outdoor education

initiatives.

•

Service Learning Program - To provide funding for students to complete resource-related

projects at state parks.

As coordinator of an outdoor classroom program, SPD would approach the program as a partner-

ship with numerous entities, such as the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, New Mex-

ico Department of Cultural Affairs, New Mexico State Land Office, the U.S. National Park Ser-

vice, and non-governmental organizations.

HB 369 could help to improve achievement by pairing schools with state parks and connecting

children with the outdoors and with their natural and cultural heritage. The outdoor classroom

House Bill 369 – Page

3

program could help lay the foundation for a strong SPD/PED partnership. HB 369 would make

possible a significant increase in interdisciplinary, hands-on education; increasing student aca-

demic achievement and making schools work outdoors.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

EMNRD suggests that HB369 would allow SPD to implement a statewide outdoor classroom

program cooperatively with PED and other agencies and organizations, and would therefore en-

hance the performance of SPD in providing quality educational programming. The number of

interpretive programs offered by SPD is a performance measure specified by the Legislature that

has been in place for a number of years. This metric is also recommended as an FY08 perform-

ance measure. The outdoor classroom program would assist SPD in exceeding this performance

measure. Other key legislative performance measures that could be positively affected by this

program include the number of visitors to state parks and self-generated revenue. Increased ex-

posure to state parks for children will lead to increased visitation in general and repeat visits by

families.

PED adds that their partnership with SPD could impact the public school performance measures

relating to the percent of stakeholders who rate their involvement with public schools as positive

and the percent of elementary and middle school students who achieve at the level of proficient

or above on the standards-based assessment in mathematics and language arts. It also supports

the Math and Science Bureau’s goal to improve student achievement in science. Further, the

number of education programs and the percentage of park visitors participating in education pro-

grams are key performance measures for the SPD. The program will assist the Division in aug-

menting the performance of its outdoor education programs by creating closer ties to the state-

wide educational system and linking division programs and statewide educational curriculum

standards and benchmarks.

PED adds that there is a growing focus on developing standards-based outdoor education pro-

grams among non-profit and governmental non-formal educators (e.g., Audubon Society, For-

estry Division, U.S. National Parks, etc.). The Math and Science Bureau has begun to work with

the state’s teacher professional organizations (Environmental Educators Association of New

Mexico, the New Mexico Science Teachers Association and the New Mexico Council of Teach-

ers of Mathematics) to provide guidance in how these outdoor education efforts and resources

can best support and align with New Mexico science and math content standards and bench-

marks. If funded, this program could position the SPD as a key partner in coordinating the edu-

cational efforts of many governmental and non-governmental entities to provide more coherent,

consistent outdoor education for school children and their teachers

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

EMNRD concludes by noting that SPD has the staff, experience, and infrastructure to effectively

administer HB369 and to succeed with the project. The SPD education program staff would ad-

minister HB369 in conjunction with PED. Management staff could undertake the programmatic

implementation of the statewide Outdoor Classroom Program and State Park education field staff

could provide the hands-on programming and school-to-park connection. The partnership with

PED, through the Office of the Secretary and the PED’s Rural Education Bureau, will provide

State Parks with a unique, effective link to schools across the state, crucial to the success of this

program.

House Bill 369 – Page

4

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

Relates to HB220

BFW/nt