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

SPONSOR McSorley

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/7/06

HB

SHORT TITLE UNM Law School Mentoring Programs

SB 181

ANALYST Lewis

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

200.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Similar to HB 829, which appropriates $100,000 but is otherwise a duplicate of this bill.

Relates to HB 169/SB 35 (NMSU (Enlace Program).

Relates to HB209/SB 36 (Post-Secondary School Enlace Programs).

Relates to SB 440 (UNM College Preparatory Mentoring Program).

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Public Education Department (PED)

Higher Education Department (HED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 181 appropriates $200,000 from the general fund to the Board of Regents of the Uni-

versity of New Mexico to fund college preparatory mentoring programs at the University of New

Mexico School of Law for children in the eighth through twelfth grades in the Albuquerque pub-

lic school system.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $200,000 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.

Senate Bill 181 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

According to the Higher Education Department (HED),

this appropriation would support one of

many mentoring programs connected with the UNM School of Law. The program is part of the

ENLACE initiative to strengthen the educational pipeline and increase opportunities for Hispan-

ics to enter and complete college. The proposed mentoring program expands ENLACE to form a

partnership with Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) to benefit students in grades 8-12. These

students will be mentored by law students and undergraduate students on site at their local

schools. The mentoring program prepares students for undergraduate studies. According to Dean

Suellyn Scarnecchia, UNM School of Law, consistent mentoring is the key to success in this

program. The purpose of the funding is to provide stability and keep students and mentors en-

gaged in the program. The funding provides stipends to mentors to help them persist, and it funds

activities for the APS students.

This request was not on the list of priority projects submitted by UNM to the HED for review

and was not included in HED’s funding recommendation for FY07.

According to the Public Education Department (PED),

a report being prepared by the UNM

School of Law shows three middle schools and three high schools will be involved in the pro-

gram (Garfield Middle School and Valley High, Truman Middle School and West Mesa High

and Washington Middle School and Albuquerque High). From these schools the population

served will be approximately 270 middle school students and 360 high school students.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

HED notes that this bill supports the Making Schools Work initiative by increasing access to

public post-secondary education and ensuring that students graduating from high school are bet-

ter prepared to succeed in higher education. It supports the HED goal of increasing higher educa-

tion program completion and graduation rate.

ML/nt