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

SPONSOR Boitano

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/8/2007

HB

SHORT TITLE School Class Size Waivers

SB 558

ANALYST Schuss

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

NFI

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Conflicts with HB 500

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Public Education Department (PED)

Department of Finance and Administration (DFA)

Attorney General’s Office (AGO)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 558 would amend NMSA 22-10A-20 to provide an additional procedure for waiving

class size limitations in a school district enrolling over 35,000 students. The bill provides that the

school district may waive its class size requirements by no more than 15 percent, if approved by

the principal, the affected teacher, and at least 75 percent of the parents of students in the class.

The bill provides that reorganizing to accommodate extra students cannot be educationally

detrimental to the students.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

PED notes that there would be no apparent fiscal impact from class size waivers.

Senate Bill 558 – Page

2

DFA states that granting a waiver could assist with lower building costs and according to the

PED Capital Outlay Department the cost of adding a portable classroom to a school campus is

approximately $180,000.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

Waivers are applied for annually and a waiver shall not be granted for more than two consecutive

years.

Currently, the only school district in New Mexico with more than 35,000 students is

Albuquerque Public School District (APS).

DFA states that the data collection department of PED reported that for school year 2005/2006

the statewide average class size for elementary schools was 14.5, middle school was 14.9, and

high school was 16.2.

PED notes that the bill allows additional students in a class if the additional students are not

educationally detrimental to the students. The phrase “educationally detrimental to the students"

is not defined and may create a conflict between the department and districts.

According to AGO, current law limits class sizes in public schools. NMSA Section 22-10A-20.

That section also provides for a waiver of those restrictions by the Secretary of Public Education.

This bill would provide an additional waiver procedure in the Albuquerque Public School

system.

CONFLICT

SB 558 conflicts with HB 500 which also amends NMSA Section 22-10A-20.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

DFA has included the following in their analysis:

Organizations such as the National Assessment on Education Progress, the Economic

Policy Institute, the Educational Testing Service and the American Institute of Research indicate

that included among the benefits derived from lower class size are: higher teacher morale,

improved academic achievement, fewer retentions, improved student behavior, early

identification of learning disabilities, improved classroom atmosphere, more individualized

attention, flexibility of the teacher to use differentiated instruction, and closing the achievement

gap between ethnic groups.

BS/nt