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

SPONSOR Berry

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

02/02/08

HM 46

SHORT TITLE Study Pre-Apprenticeship Curriculum

SB

ANALYST Hanika-Ortiz

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

No Appropriation

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

New Mexico Public Education Department (PED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Memorial 46 requests a study be performed on the implementation of a pre-apprenticeship

curriculum in high school career-technical programs.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

Agencies will have expenditures in providing staff time to support the study.

The PED’s Career Technical Workforce Education Bureau (CTWEB) would be charged with

participating in the study committee. However, CTWEB is federally funded and absorbing this

charge with existing federally funded positions may raise the issue of supplanting.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

House Memorial 46 provides for the following:

•

New Mexico has one of the highest dropout rates in the United States.

•

Only twenty-three and nine-tenths percent of New Mexico high school graduates go on to

attend college.

House Memorial 46 – Page

2

•

Students who are not college-bound currently have inadequate options to keep them

engaged in school and on track for graduation.

•

Limited educational resources are currently dedicated to career-technical and vocational

training.

•

An untrained and uninterested student has a higher likelihood of becoming involved in

gangs and other counterproductive behavior.

•

There is an ongoing demand for well-trained employees in many technical fields in this

State and those jobs have high pay scales and provide benefits.

•

Students should have an opportunity to start a trades-based career path during their junior

and senior years of high school through pre-apprenticeship programs.

•

Students enrolled in a pre-apprenticeship curriculum will be better prepared to enter

registered apprenticeship programs with some required coursework completed after high

school graduation.

•

Industry experts are often the most qualified teachers for pre-apprenticeship programs

and pre-apprenticeship curriculum development.

•

It is in the public interest of the state to encourage and facilitate the formation of

cooperative relationships among business, labor and educational institutions to develop

industry-taught pre-apprenticeship programs in order to give students the skills to meet

workforce needs.

•

Any program or curriculum development that results from the cooperative relationship

among business, labor and educational institutions should be called "Running Start for

Careers.

The Memorial resolves that findings and recommendations be presented to the legislative

education study committee and any other appropriate legislative committee during the 2008

interim.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

PED reports that to advance economic development, Governor Richardson initiated seven career

clusters to address the need for a highly trained workforce. This memorial could closely align to

clusters like the following, which encompass career and technical education programs already

being implemented across the state and others: Engineering, Construction, Manufacturing and

Agriculture Cluster (with pathways in construction, trades, installation and repair, etc.) and the

Energy and Environmental Cluster (with pathways in government inspection, machining,

instrument and electrical, etc.).

PED also reports that this study would support PED’s goal to increase academic excellence and

student achievement. Additionally, CTE provides relevance to a curriculum and hands-on

instruction that may impact the annual cohort graduation rate for ninth graders who entered

school year 2004-2005.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

The Memorial requests that the public education department, the higher education department,

the workforce solutions department, the economic development department, the association of

commerce and industry, industry advocacy groups and registered apprenticeship programs in the

state be requested to study the feasibility of implementing an industry-taught pre-apprenticeship

curriculum in high school career-technical programs.

House Memorial 46 – Page

3

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

Duplicates SM 36

TECHNICAL ISSUES

PED notes that this study would be supportive of educational redesign in New Mexico. The

memorial expresses that New Mexico demographics show a need for supporting the position of

the Rural Economic Development Committee in seeking funding for schools throughout the state

to ensure that students get instruction in industrial arts, auto mechanics, welding, plumbing,

electricity, etc. However, this memorial does not appear to use language parallel to the high

school redesign legislation enacted in 2007. A name change could:

•

differentiate between the old (‘vocational’) and new (career technical education CTE)

paradigm of instructional best practices;

•

address professional development for teachers to include Programs Of Study (POS). The

POS is a rigorous, sequential, aligned course of study leading to an industry recognized

credential/certificate, or Associate or Bachelor’s Degree; the POS is based on innovative ideas

contained within high school redesign for the 21

st

Century.

The memorial does not identify a lead agency to develop, administer and oversee the activities

designated in the memorial.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

PED has the following comments:

More than 80 percent of respondents in the 2005 National Association of Manufacturer’s Skills

GAP Report indicated that business is experiencing a shortage of qualified workers overall –

with 13 percent reporting severe shortages in some areas and 68 percent indicating moderate

shortages in others. Career technical education plays a vital role in helping American business

close this gap by building a competitive workforce for the 21st Century.

Further, CTWEB will begin collecting data in 2008-2009 regarding academic and CTE

improvement by instituting performance measures applicable not only to schools receiving Carl

D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act funding, but to all CTE students. To

promote continuous program improvement, criteria has been established to support state and

local performance measures, and an electronic data reporting system has been designed to assess

the effectiveness of CTE throughout the state. The core indicators for success have been

identified as follows:

•

Student attainment of challenging academic content-aligned standards (New Mexico Content

Standards, Benchmarks, along with Performance Standards) and student academic

achievement standards, as adopted by the state under the Elementary and Secondary

Education Act (ESEA) (NCLB) and measured by the state-determined proficiency levels on

the academic assessment under ESEA;

•

Student attainment of career and technical skill proficiencies, including student achievement

on technical assessments, that are aligned with industry-recognized standards, if available and

appropriate;

•

Student rates of attainment in each of the following areas: A) a secondary school diploma; B)

a GED credential, or other state-recognized equivalent (including recognized alternative

House Memorial 46 – Page

4

standards for individuals with disabilities); C) a proficiency credential, certificate, or degree,

in conjunction with a secondary school diploma (if offered by the state);

•

Student graduation rates as described in the ESEA (NCLB);

•

Student placement in postsecondary education or advanced training, in military service, or in

employment; and

•

Student participation in and completion of career-technical education programs that lead to

nontraditional fields.

ALTERNATIVES

PED suggests that this study could be incorporated into other related funded legislation such as

SB 170, High School Vocational Training.

WHAT WILL BE THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT ENACTING THIS BILL

It is likely that a feasibility study would not be performed on the implementation of an industry-

taught pre-apprenticeship curriculum in high school career-technical programs.

AHO/bb