Fiscal impact reports (FIRs) are prepared by the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) for standing finance

committees of the NM Legislature. The LFC does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of these reports

if they are used for other purposes.

Current FIRs (in HTML & Adobe PDF formats) are a vailable on the NM Legislative Website (legis.state.nm.us).

Adobe PDF versions include all attachments, whereas HTML versions may not. Previously issued FIRs and

attachments may be obtained from the LFC in Suite 101 of the State Capitol Building North.

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

SPONSOR SFC

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

3/10/2007

HB

SHORT TITLE High School Reforms

SB 211/SFCS

ANALYST Aguilar

ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL OPERATING BUDGET IMPACT (dollars in thousands)

FY07

FY08

FY09 3 Year

Total Cost

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

Total

$25.0

$25.0

$50.0 Recurring General

Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to HB 68, HB 34, SB 561,

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

The Senate Finance Committee substitute for Senate Bill 211 provides for the department to

issue rules for training and other requirements to support the use of unlicensed content area

experts as resources in schools; establishes a uniform statewide teacher accountability reporting

system; clarifies teacher mentorship program components and distribution of funds to

mentorship programs and provides for a uniform student identification number for public schools

and public post-secondary educational institutions.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

SB211/SFCS provides that the PED shall issue rules for the training and support of unlicensed

content-area experts as resources in classrooms, team teaching, on-line construction, curriculum

development and other purposes. While the department will be required to establish rules to

implement the provisions of the bill, funding is not included for this purpose. The public

education department notes the need for additional funding to complete the rule making process.

It is estimated to cost approximately $50 thousand to implement these rules.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

SB211/SFCS provides for the creation of a uniform statewide teacher education accountability

reporting system to track teacher education candidates pre-entry to post graduation and requires

Senate Bill 211/SFCS – Page

2

all public post secondary teacher preparation programs to submit data through the student teacher

accountability reporting system.

In testimony to both LFC and LESC during the interim it was noted that the increasing number

of teachers leaving the profession in the first five years of service was the result of low quality,

short term mentorship or no mentorship at all as they entered the profession. Provisions in SB-

211/SFCS appear to address this issue in part as the bill lays out sustained requirements in

developing and implementing effective programs. The committee substitute however focuses

only on collaboration between school of education and mentorship services for new high school

teachers. New elementary teachers have unique induction issues as do middle school teachers.

The Legislature may wish to increase the scope of the mentorship, requiring additional support

for these issues.

SB-211/SFCS requires HED in collaboration with public post-secondary educational institutions

to utilize the unique student identification number. Both PED and HED will:

•

Develop a system for assigning ID’s to students who did not attend a New Mexico public

school

•

Add an additional identifier to students who enter a teacher preparation program

•

Adopt the format to report individual student data to PED’s STARS system.

The Office of Educational Accountability notes this is a critical area. In order to accurately

follow student performance beyond high school, New Mexico needs to have a uniform student

ID number throughout the P-20 system. While the need to track student performance from high

school into post secondary education is crucial, SB-211/SFCS does not address the potential

costs to post secondary education institutions in switching data systems to be compatible with the

new student ID number or creating data formats that are compatible with STARS. Given the

track record of STARS in reporting out 40 day data this year and the problems the state is having

with SHARE, it is expected that this will not be a smooth transition unless coordination between

the agencies is significant and sustained.

PA/mt