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

SPONSOR Harden

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/07/06

HB

SHORT TITLE Adult Basic Education Programs

SB 52

ANALYST Earp

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$500.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to Senate Bill 54

Relates to Appropriation in the General Appropriation Act

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

New Mexico Association of Community Colleges (NMSCC)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 52 appropriates $500,000 from the general fund to HED to fully fund Adult Basic

Education (ABE) programs.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $500,000 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2007 shall revert

to the general fund. These funds would augment the recurring funding contained in the General

Appropriation Act for this purpose. The intent is to provide full funding for ABE through a

workload-based formula.

Senate Bill 52 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

This proposal is included among the HED’s fiscal year 2007 funding recommendations to the

Legislature.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

HED reports that adult education programs exceeded 15 of the 16 performance standards set for

FY04-05 (for pre- and post-tested students). The performance standards set annually by the State

and the U. S. Department of Education determine targets for increases in student educational

functioning levels (12 levels), obtaining or retaining employment, earning secondary school cre-

dentials (GED), and transitioning to post-secondary education or other training.

Recent Achievements include:

· 73% of students with a goal of entering post-secondary education or training

achieved their goal.

· 60% of students with a goal of obtaining a high school diploma achieved their goal.

· 58% of tested students made significant educational gains – at least one

functioning level.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

HED would administer the additional funds in conjunction with the current appropriation for

ABE programs. The additional funding would be distributed among eligible programs on the

basis of an ABE formula developed for this purpose.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

This bill is generally related to Senate Bill 54 which would provide $1 million for expansion of

ABE English as a Second Language programs.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

HED reports that the department has worked to integrate ABE programs into the overall funding

mechanism for post-secondary institutions. The ABE formula is the only educational formula

that has not been fully funded. Maintenance (and expansion) of ABE program capacity is a very

high priority for HED. With state appropriations, the ABE program currently funds 23 educa-

tional institutions: 19 state public post-secondary institutions, 3 tribal colleges and 1 public high

school. In FY05, the total headcount in these ABE programs was 19,371. The cost per weighted

headcount was $222. These programs serve less than 5% of the eligible adult population. This

request supports the Governor's initiative to develop a better educated workforce and create more

opportunity for enrollment in higher education.

The New Mexico Association of Community Colleges (NMACC) reports that institutions operat-

ing ABE programs (mainly community colleges) generally have to supplement their ABE pro-

grams with operating I&G funds that they get as part of the credit higher education formula as

the ABE formula does not adequately support (even after fully funding) serving the

ABE/Literacy needs of the state. The state support per ABE client is only $222.00 for services

rendered. TANF funding that supplemented ABE services for TANF clients for several years

has been eliminated, but there still is the expectation to serve this population. These programs

Senate Bill 52 – Page

3

are supplemented with about $3 million in Federal funds but this funding is competitive (there-

fore cannot be necessarily counted on to continue at prior levels) and always seems to be on the

“chopping block” in these years of attempting to balance the federal budget and growing deficits.

Therefore, the state needs to keep increasing its investment in these programs.

NMACC states that ABE programs collectively serve a little over 22,000 clients needing adult

basic education and literacy services. These are the people who have either fallen through the

cracks of our educational system or have come into the state with English as a Second Language.

It is estimated that there are 400,000 in New Mexico who need these basic skill services so fully

funding the formula will help but by no means will be close to the resources needed to fully ad-

dress this problem. If New Mexico wants to strive to be a higher wage economy, many of these

people with basic skills and literacy needs will have to be given an opportunity to increase their

educational attainment.

DKE/nt