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

SPONSOR Cordova

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/28/06

1/31/06 HB 370

SHORT TITLE Valencia County Dropout & G.D.E. Programs

SB

ANALYST Baca

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$250.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to Appropriation in the General Appropriation Act

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Public Education Department (PED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 370 appropriates $250,000 from the general fund for expenditure in FY07 to support

two programs in Valencia County:

$150,000 for a general equivalency program (GED), and

$100,000 for an existing dropout prevention program in the Los Lunas Public Schools.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $250,000 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the fund. Any un-

expended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY07 shall revert to the general

fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

School dropouts and school dropout prevention continue to be challenges for public schools.

PED reports that New Mexico schools reports 4,809 students were considered dropouts during

the 2004 -05 school year, at a 4.8 percent rate. While this is considered an improvement over

House Bill 370 – Page

2

previous year’s dropout rates, the need to further reduce the number of dropouts continues.

Dropout prevention programs are being implemented in many school districts, Los Lunas Public

Schools among them. GED programs that provide individualized instruction, stress employabil-

ity skills and job placement are considered instrumental in allowing students to obtain high

school equivalency diplomas and are thus able to pursue additional education and/or obtain jobs

that pay more than minimum wage while providing improved opportunities for upward economic

and social mobility.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

Dropout prevention strategies may positively impact public school performance measures and bench-

marks regarding reading, language arts, math and graduation rates.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

The PED reports that, if funded, the PED would be responsible for providing funding to and

monitoring the program. This process takes approximately 80 hours of an Education Adminis-

trator – A’s time @ $25.495 per hour plus benefits (25.495 x 80 + 30% = $2.6 Total Cost).

WHAT WILL BE THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT ENACTING THIS BILL

The dropout prevention programs proposed in the bill may not continue.

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS

1.

How many students are currently being served by the Los Lunas dropout prevention pro-

gram.

2.

How many students completed the GED program during the 2004-05 school year.

LRB/mt