Fiscal impact reports (FIRs) are prepared by the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) for standing finance
committees of the NM Legislature. The LFC does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of these reports
if they are used for other purposes.
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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T
SPONSOR SFC
ORIGINAL DATE
LAST UPDATED
3/10/2007
HB
SHORT TITLE High School Reforms
SB 211/SFCS
ANALYST Aguilar
ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL OPERATING BUDGET IMPACT (dollars in thousands)
FY07
FY08
FY09 3 Year
Total Cost
Recurring
or Non-Rec
Fund
Affected
Total
$25.0
$25.0
$50.0 Recurring General
Fund
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Relates to HB 68, HB 34, SB 561,
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
LFC Files
SUMMARY
Synopsis of Bill
The Senate Finance Committee substitute for Senate Bill 211 provides for the department to
issue rules for training and other requirements to support the use of unlicensed content area
experts as resources in schools; establishes a uniform statewide teacher accountability reporting
system; clarifies teacher mentorship program components and distribution of funds to
mentorship programs and provides for a uniform student identification number for public schools
and public post-secondary educational institutions.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
SB211/SFCS provides that the PED shall issue rules for the training and support of unlicensed
content-area experts as resources in classrooms, team teaching, on-line construction, curriculum
development and other purposes. While the department will be required to establish rules to
implement the provisions of the bill, funding is not included for this purpose. The public
education department notes the need for additional funding to complete the rule making process.
It is estimated to cost approximately $50 thousand to implement these rules.
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES
SB211/SFCS provides for the creation of a uniform statewide teacher education accountability
reporting system to track teacher education candidates pre-entry to post graduation and requires
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Senate Bill 211/SFCS – Page
2
all public post secondary teacher preparation programs to submit data through the student teacher
accountability reporting system.
In testimony to both LFC and LESC during the interim it was noted that the increasing number
of teachers leaving the profession in the first five years of service was the result of low quality,
short term mentorship or no mentorship at all as they entered the profession. Provisions in SB-
211/SFCS appear to address this issue in part as the bill lays out sustained requirements in
developing and implementing effective programs. The committee substitute however focuses
only on collaboration between school of education and mentorship services for new high school
teachers. New elementary teachers have unique induction issues as do middle school teachers.
The Legislature may wish to increase the scope of the mentorship, requiring additional support
for these issues.
SB-211/SFCS requires HED in collaboration with public post-secondary educational institutions
to utilize the unique student identification number. Both PED and HED will:
Develop a system for assigning ID’s to students who did not attend a New Mexico public
school
Add an additional identifier to students who enter a teacher preparation program
Adopt the format to report individual student data to PED’s STARS system.
The Office of Educational Accountability notes this is a critical area. In order to accurately
follow student performance beyond high school, New Mexico needs to have a uniform student
ID number throughout the P-20 system. While the need to track student performance from high
school into post secondary education is crucial, SB-211/SFCS does not address the potential
costs to post secondary education institutions in switching data systems to be compatible with the
new student ID number or creating data formats that are compatible with STARS. Given the
track record of STARS in reporting out 40 day data this year and the problems the state is having
with SHARE, it is expected that this will not be a smooth transition unless coordination between
the agencies is significant and sustained.
PA/mt