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

SPONSOR:	Garcia		DATE TYPED:	2/18/03		HB
SHORT TITLE:		Official State Goal for Literacy by 3rd Grade				SB	321
					ANALYST:		L. Baca

APPROPRIATION

Appropriation Contained		Estimated Additional Impact		Recurring or Non-Rec	Fund Affected
FY03	FY04	FY03	FY04
	NFI

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Identical to HB 374, Official State Goal of Literacy by 3^rd Grade

Relates to SB 189, Require Reading Proficiency for 4^th Graders

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Responses Received From

State Department of Education (SDE)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 321 creates the Literacy Task Force, to be staffed jointly by SDE, the Legislative Education Study Committee (LESC), and the Legislative Council Service (LCS); specifies the composition of the task force; charges the task force to develop a plan containing specific steps so that, by July 1, 2005, all children of New Mexico will have attained literacy by the end of the 3^rd grade; and requires the task to submit its plan to the Legislature and the Governor no later than December 15, 2003.

Significant Issues

SB 321 addresses one of the most significant factors for academic and employment success: literacy. It is also supportive of the State Board of Education’s legislative priorities for 2003.

According to SDE, the emphasis on literacy in the early years is crucial to future success, and reading skills are best learned in the early years. Also, the need for this emphasis is needed because:

Disaggregated data from norm-referenced assessments administered from 1997 to 2001 to measure the reading proficiency of fourth graders indicate a consistent pattern in which Anglo achievement falls between 18 to 20 percentile points above the national median percentile while Hispanic achievement in reading falls four to nine points below and Native American fourth grade achievement in reading has been consistently 19 to 22 percentile points below the national median.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The bill has no additional fiscal impact on the general fund. Expenses for task force activities are to be borne by the SDE, LESC and LCS.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

SDE, LESC and LCS will need to coordinate their efforts to attain the goals set forth in the bill.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

The 19-member task force is to be comprised of:

• the Superintendent of Public Instruction,
• two members of local school boards, appointed by the State Board of Education;
• two local school district administrators, appointed by the State Board of Education;
• three early childhood educators, appointed by the Governor;
• one early childhood development education expert, appointed by the Board of Regents of the University of New Mexico;
• one early childhood development expert, appointed by the Board of Regents of new Mexico State University;
• the Chairman of the House Education Committee;
• the Chairman of the Senate Education committee;
• two members of the House of Representatives, one of whom shall be a member of the minority party, appointed by the Speaker of the House;
• two members of the Senate, one of whom shall be a member of the minority party, appointed by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate; and
• three representatives of the public, appointed by the Governor.

LRB/sb