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

SPONSOR Nava

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1-26-06 HB

SHORT TITLE Statewide Outdoor Classroom Program

SB 37

ANALYST Woods

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$250.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Duplicates HB161

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Department of Finance and Administration (DFA)

Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD)

Public Education Department (PED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 37, which makes an appropriation to the State Parks Division of the Energy, Minerals

and Natural Resources Department, of $250,000 from the general fund for expenditure in fiscal

year 2007 to support a statewide outdoor classroom program. Any unexpended or unencumbered

balance remaining at the end of the fiscal year 2007 shall revert to the general fund.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) notes that this legislation will provide

enhanced opportunities for New Mexican school children to visit and experience the facilities of

the State Parks Division of the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. Further

that the program is the outgrowth of a report prepared by the State Parks Division, and the Public

Education Department as required by Senate Joint Memorial 24, passed during the 2005 legisla-

tive session. DFA indicates that the $250,000 required to support the program will be recurring

general fund monies.

Senate Bill 37 – Page

2

The Public Education Department (PED) indicates that, while the appropriation is made to the

State Parks Division of EMNRD, there will be also be costs incurred by (PED) while assisting

EMNRD in the development of the teacher education training program, assisting in recruitment

of teachers and evaluation of the project. PED estimates of the time required to support this leg-

islation would be .20 Administrator A @ 25.495 per hour and benefits. The cost of time and

benefits would be $13,964. Monitoring the project would include travel @ .32 for 500 miles and

per diem for two nights at $85 for a total of $ 330. The total cost of the time, benefits and travel

to support this project will be $14,294.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

As further background, EMNRD indicates that this legislation stems from a study prepared by

the State Parks Division (SPD) and the Public Education Department 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, as required by SJM 24,

was presented to the Legislative Education Study Committee in October 2005. Commenting on

the study, EMNRD observes:

SPD and PED found enormous 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, interactive education can increase

student test scores, reduce discipline problems, build citizenry skills and resource stew-

ardship ethics, and increase teacher job satisfaction.

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

natural and cultural resource themes, positioned for a hands-on, interdisciplinary ap-

proach. 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 Class-

room” 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, de-

velop curriculum-based programming, and build partnerships between parks

and teachers.

•

Teacher Resource Program: To provide hands-on teaching materials for chil-

dren, expand the State Parks Junior Ranger program, develop on-line educa-

tional programming, and augment staffing to deliver the programs.

Senate Bill 37 – Page

3

•

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

education initiatives.

•

Service Learning Program: To provide funding for students to complete re-

source-related projects at state parks.

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

a partnership with numerous entities, such as the New Mexico Department of Game and

Fish, New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, New Mexico State Land Office, the

U.S. National Park Service, and non-governmental organizations.

In closing, EMNRD suggests that this legislation could help to close the achievement gap by

pairing schools with state parks and connecting children with the outdoors and with their natural

and cultural heritage. Further, that the legislation would make possible a significant increase in

interdisciplinary, hands-on education, increasing student academic achievement and making

schools work outdoors, while also helping to lay the foundation for a strong SPD/PED partner-

ship.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

The Public Education Department anticipates that the PED and State Parks Division partnership

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 4th and 8th-grade stu-

dents who achieve proficiency or above on the criterion-referenced assessments in reading and

language arts, and could also assist students in meeting core performance measures. Further, the

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

grams are key performance measures for the State Parks Division. The program will assist the

division in augmenting the performance of its outdoor education programs by creating closer ties

to the statewide educational system and linking division programs and statewide educational cur-

riculum standards and benchmarks.

EMNRD notes that the legislation 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 FY07 perform-

ance measure and the outdoor classroom program would assist SPD in exceeding this perform-

ance measure.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

EMNRD advises that the State Parks Division has the staff, experience, and infrastructure to ef-

fectively administer the legislation, and to succeed with the project. Working in conjunction

with PED, SPD 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.

Senate Bill 37 – Page

4

WHAT WILL BE THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT ENACTING THIS BILL

EMNRD indicates that if the legislation is not enacted, SPD will not have sufficient funding to

launch the statewide outdoor classroom program. SPD will continue its efforts to provide quality

interpretation and education programming, but state parks and other locations would remain un-

derutilized for outdoor education. SPD would not have the ability to capitalize on the full poten-

tial of the parks to enhance New Mexico educational systems and to meet existing demand for

programs, student/teacher educational resources, and teacher training.

BW/yr