46th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2003

REQUESTING THE LEGISLATIVE EDUCATION STUDY COMMITTEE WORK GROUP ON CHARTER SCHOOLS TO STUDY THE FISCAL AND PROGRAMMATIC IMPACT OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CHARTER SCHOOLS ON THE STATE AS A WHOLE AS WELL AS THE NUMBER AND ENROLLMENT SIZE OF CHARTER SCHOOLS THAT SHOULD BE ESTABLISHED IN INDIVIDUAL SCHOOL DISTRICTS SO THAT DISTRICTS MAY CONTINUE TO SERVE STUDENTS IN A FISCALLY AND PROGRAMMATICALLY PRUDENT MANNER.

WHEREAS, the 1999 Charter Schools Act was enacted by the legislature four years ago; and

WHEREAS, charter schools are public schools that are required to meet the same academic and fiscal accountability standards required of all other public schools; and

WHEREAS, the 1999 Charter Schools Act requires that no more than fifteen start-up charter schools and five conversion charter schools be approved in any one year for five consecutive years, making possible a total of one hundred approved charter schools in any five-year period; and

WHEREAS, the limit on the number of charter schools is not based on any data regarding the fiscal or programmatic impact of charter schools on the viability of local school districts individually and the state as a whole; and

WHEREAS, the state board of education has approved the charters of thirty-five charter schools, twenty-seven of which are currently open and eight of which will open in the fall of 2003; and

WHEREAS, of thirty-five approved schools, thirty-two are start-up schools and three are conversion schools; and

WHEREAS, the twenty-seven open schools have a total enrollment of more than six thousand students; and

WHEREAS, the student population in charter schools ranges from seventeen students to four hundred fifty students; and

WHEREAS, charter schools are funded under the same funding formula as public schools; and

WHEREAS, the New Mexico public school funding formula is one of the most equitable in the United States; and

WHEREAS, notwithstanding the equity of the formula, funding for New Mexico public schools has been limited and under great stress in the past several years; and

WHEREAS, questions and concerns have arisen about the size and limit of the number of schools established within a school district and the fiscal and programmatic viability of both charter schools and their host school districts, as well as school districts throughout the state;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the legislative education study committee work group on charter schools be requested to study the fiscal and programmatic impact of the establishment of charter schools on the state as a whole, as well as the number and enrollment size of charter schools that should be established in individual school districts so that districts may continue to serve students in a fiscally and programmatically prudent manner; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the legislative education study committee work group on charter schools report its findings and recommendations to the legislative education study committee by November 2003; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this memorial be transmitted to the chair of the legislative education study committee for distribution.