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

SPONSOR M. Sanchez

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/16/06

HB

SHORT TITLE Rural Area Child Literacy Programs

SB 668

ANALYST Aguilar

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$1,000.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to HB49

Relates to Appropriation in the General Appropriation Act

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Public Education Department (PED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 668 appropriates $1 million from the general fund to the public education department

for the purpose of providing integrated in-school, after school and summer supplementary liter-

acy programs for children from rural areas at a minimum of ten school sites.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $1 million contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2008 shall revert

to the general fund.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

While the bill states (lines 21 and 22) that the literacy program “has been previously imple-

Senate Bill 668 – Page 2

mented in rural areas in New Mexico…” there is not an identification of the program or sites to

be selected. The bill could be strengthened if it indicated:

•

the kind of literacy program and model proposed to be utilized;

•

the program’s effectiveness in meeting the academic needs to rural students in New Mex-

ico;

•

the sites targeted for the program and how they are to be selected; and

•

whether the students targeted attend BIA, grant, contract, private or public schools.

The timeframe of two years for new programs may not be adequate for purposes of collecting

and analyzing data to establish baseline data and to assess program effectiveness.

PA/yr