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committees of the NM Legislature. The LFC does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of these reports

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

SPONSOR Park

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/17/2007

2/22/2007 HB 501/a HEC

SHORT TITLE Increase School Year Length

SB

ANALYST Schuss

ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL OPERATING BUDGET IMPACT (dollars in thousands)

FY07

FY08

FY09 3 Year

Total Cost

Recurring

or Non-

Rec

Fund

Affected

Total

$163,100.0* $163,100.0* $326,200.0* Recurring General

Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases) * These figures represent the impact of the newly amended bill which include

transportation and food service costs

* DFA figures would show an approximate increase of $182,500.0 per year

*

LESC figures show an increase of $186,000.0 per year

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Public Education Department (PED)

Department of Finance and Administration (DFA)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Amendment

The amendment proposed by the House Education Committee changes the initial request of

increasing the school year by 30 days to 15 days. This will make the school year 195 days in

length.

PED notes the following change in the fiscal implications:

The 2005-2006 statewide school district and charter school expenditures for salaries and

fixed costs relating to an instructional day were approximately $1,957,500,000 based on a

minimum school year length of 180 days. Requiring the minimum school year length to be at

least 195 full instructional days would require school districts and charter schools to account for

15 extra days in their budget. The potential impact would be approximately 8.33% increase in

salaries and fixed costs for the upcoming 2007-2008 fiscal year and subsequent years. The

statewide 8.33% increase would require approximately $163,126,000 in additional funding to

school districts and charter schools.

House Bill 501/a HEC - Page

2

Synopsis of Original Bill

House Bill 501 amends the Public School Finance Act section 22-8-9 NMSA 1978 by increasing

the length of school year by 30 days, requiring the school year to be at least 210 days.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

PED reports that the 2005-2006 statewide school district and charter school expenditures for

salaries and fixed costs relating to an instructional day were approximately $1,957,500.0 based

on a minimum school year length of 180 days. Requiring the minimum school year length to be

at least 210 full instructional days would require school districts and charter schools to account

for 30 extra days in their budget. The potential impact would be a 17% increase in salaries and

fixed costs for the upcoming 2007-2008 fiscal year and subsequent years. The statewide 17%

increase would require approximately $326,250.0 in additional funding to school districts and

charter schools.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

The following issues are included in the analysis from PED:

•

Through the current system, additional dollars needed to support the increased length of

the school year would be included in the total statewide funding formula for the

upcoming fiscal year beginning July 1, 2007 and subsequent fiscal years.

•

There is currently not an appropriation for HB 501.

•

With additional instructional days curriculum materials could be covered more

comprehensively and there would be a better probability of completing the material for a

specific grade level. In the present calendar as much as a week is given to either testing or

preparation for testing, and if teachers are provided professional in-service it is usually

done during the regular school year necessitating the teachers absence from his/her

classroom and instruction relegated to a substitute teacher. If teachers are to be expected

to cover all the material required in the various curriculums and additional time provided

for professional in-service, then additional days indicated in this bill would provide

additional time for curriculum completion and teacher training to be accomplished.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

PED administrative complexity would increase. All curricula would have to expand, to take

advantage of the extra days of instruction.

BS/mt