HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 82

46th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2004

INTRODUCED BY

Al Park

A JOINT MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THAT THE RESPONSIBLE AGENCIES MEET TO DEVELOP A PROCESS TO REGULARLY PROVIDE ACCOUNTABILITY DATA ON NEW MEXICO ACADEMIC GRADUATES AND PROGRAM COMPLETERS EMPLOYED IN THE WORKFORCE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WAGE TRACKING SYSTEM.

     WHEREAS, data about academic attainers entering the workforce is valuable to our educational institutions in gauging how successful the state's academic programs are; and

     WHEREAS, many federal programs ask, and the legislative finance committee encourages, all agencies participating in workforce development to collect the following measures with baseline data in future years: percent of participants entering into unsubsidized employment; percent of participants retained in employment six months after entry into employment; and percent of increase in earnings from unsubsidized employment; and

     WHEREAS, the department of labor can provide the most comprehensive, complete and reliable information about these workforce outcomes for New Mexico's academic graduates and program completers through its unemployment insurance wage tracking system; and

     WHEREAS, the commission on higher education and the labor department have already entered into an agreement to collect a limited amount of data through the unemployment insurance wage tracking system, primarily on community college graduates; and

     WHEREAS, there are many more academic graduate and program completer populations that need to be measured through the unemployment insurance wage tracking system in order to truly assess the impact of New Mexico's educational programs on workforce development; and

     WHEREAS, if increased, the volume of activity will dictate coordination of this data collection activity and distribution of results through a limited number of entities; and

     WHEREAS, pending issues need to be resolved, such as the need for agreements with neighboring states to track job placements of those academic graduates and program completers who leave New Mexico for employment and the fact that some of our student populations are not assigned social security numbers, which is the main tool to track our students through the unemployment insurance wage databases;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the labor department meet with representatives of the commission on higher education, higher education institutions, workforce programs and the public education department to address data collection needs, processes of data collection and dissemination, coordination of requests, time lines and other pending issues and barriers to data collection so that a system of regular outcome data about employment of academic graduates and program completers available through the labor department's unemployment insurance wage tracking system and other special requests can be readily accessible to our education providers; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the labor department be requested to submit findings and recommendations on developing a process for regular and timely data collection, analysis and dissemination of employment outcome data to be provided to designated education providers for use in accountability reporting to the legislative finance committee and other appropriate interim legislative committees prior to November 1, 2004; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the labor department, the commission on higher education, the public institutions of higher education and the public education department.