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.167962.1
SENATE MEMORIAL 37
48
TH LEGISLATURE
- STATE OF NEW MEXICO -
FIRST SESSION
, 2007
INTRODUCED BY
James G. Taylor
A MEMORIAL
REQUESTING THE LEGISLATIVE FINANCE COMMITTEE AND THE OFFICE OF
EDUCATION ACCOUNTABILITY TO CONDUCT AN AUDIT OF THE ALBUQUERQUE
SCHOOL DISTRICT.
WHEREAS, with approximately ninety-four thousand six
hundred students, Albuquerque public schools is the largest
school district in the state and one of the largest in the
country; and
WHEREAS, it is a majority Hispanic school district, with
fifty-four and one-half percent Hispanic, just over thirty
percent Anglo, about five percent Native American, almost four
percent African American and about two and one-half percent
Asian students; and
WHEREAS, the school district encompasses the south
valley, the southeast heights, the far northeast heights and
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.167962.1
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the west mesa areas of the Albuquerque metropolis and includes
the entire range of the socioeconomic scale, with about forty
percent of its elementary and middle school students receiving
free or reduced-fee lunch; and
WHEREAS, the state equalization guarantee includes a cost
differential that provides school districts with additional
funds based on certain characteristics that describe students
at risk of dropping out, including mobility, family income,
English language learner and percent of students who receive
title I funding; and
WHEREAS, because these characteristics are accurate
predictors of the number of students who are at risk of not
completing high school, it is important that the state funding
for this purpose be spent in the schools and classrooms that
generate the funds; and
WHEREAS, the schools in the Rio Grande high school,
Highland high school and Albuquerque high school clusters have
large numbers of students who come from low socioeconomic
backgrounds; and
WHEREAS, anecdotal information indicates that these
schools are not receiving the financial aid they generated from
their large numbers of at-risk students and, therefore, are
hampered in their ability to provide the intensive services
that at-risk students need if they are to stay in school and
graduate;
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.167962.1
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE
OF NEW MEXICO that the legislative finance committee and the
office of education accountability be requested to conduct an
audit of the Albuquerque public schools to determine how, to
what purposes and to what schools state and federal funds are
allocated and to determine whether the district is putting its
at-risk funding into the schools with the highest dropout rates
and other indicators of large at-risk student populations; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
transmitted to the director of the legislative finance
committee and the director of the office of education
accountability.
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