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

SPONSOR Salazar

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

02/09/2007

HB 594

SHORT TITLE

Northern Pueblo Distance Learning System

SB

ANALYST Moser

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$830.3

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

NM Department of Higher Education (HED)

Department of Public Education (PED)

Office of Chief Information Officer (OCIO)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 594 appropriates $830,250 from the General Fund to the Board of Regents of

Northern New Mexico State School for expenditure in FY08 to assist the Eight Northern New

Mexico Indian Pueblos to improve technology and access to online courses and increase distance

education services to the pueblos and non-Indian neighboring communities.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $830,250 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the General Fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY08 shall revert to the

General Fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

HED states that the appropriations will be used to setup eight distance learning network centers

House Bill 594 – Page

2

in the Northern Pueblos including equipment purchase (audio and video), equipment installation,

and first month billing for T-1 line access to nine sites including NNMC. The intent of this

initiative is to increase student enrollment by offering concurrent enrollment courses for high

school students and licensure certification courses for elementary and secondary teachers in the

Eight Northern Pueblo communities.

The HED indicates that the Northern New Mexico College (NNMC) in partnership with the

Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Council, Inc.(ENIPC) is requesting funding to set up the

infrastructure for distance education in the eight pueblo communities (Tesuque, Nambe,

Pojoaque, Taos, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara, Ohkay Owingeh, Picuris) and the ENIPC, Inc.

Headquarters in Ohkay Owingeh.

This request was not submitted by NNMC to the New Mexico Higher Education Department for

review, and it is not included in the department’s funding recommendation for FY08.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

In 1992, NNMC and ENIPC developed a formal partnership to address the needs of the pueblo

communities by offering research, technical assistance, etc. NNMC and the Eight Northern

Pueblo Governors have a Memorandum of Understanding which includes educational access to

higher education.

In August of 2006, the eight pueblos gave NNMC permission to survey their communities in the

area of education and employment; the results have been reviewed and needs identified. One of

the top three needs identified through that survey was the need to develop or create education

centers in each of the pueblo communities that will serve their residents with distance education

(e.g. online courses).

The results of the survey indicated that many individuals from the pueblo community were

interested in taking college level courses but because of distance to the college, transportation

problems, day care, or work conflicts, and family and tribal obligations many are not able to

leave home to pursue a postsecondary education in a college setting.

GM/mt