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

SPONSOR Sandoval

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/31/08

HB 598

SHORT TITLE NM Tech Teachers Master's Degree

SB

ANALYST Haug

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

$200.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

Public Education Department (PED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 598 appropriates $200.0 from the general fund to the Board of Regents of New

Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology to be equally distributed between expenses of a

teachers’ master’s degree program and student data research and analysis of twelve years of data.

The HED states that this request was not submitted to the New Mexico Higher Education

Department for review and is not included in the Department’s legislative recommendation for

FY09.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $200.0 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund. Any

unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2009 shall revert to the

general fund.

House Bill 598 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

According to the HED:

The New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology seeks funding for the continuation

of a teacher’s master’s degree program which trains students to become graduate science

and math teachers. An estimated 4,000 math and science teacher’s state wide are seeking

master’s program opportunities.

The Master’s Science Teachers (MTS) program at NMIMT originally began as an onsite

program and therefore was initially only able to reach a dozen or so students. According

to a representative of the academic affairs office the goal is to make this program

accessible to as many math and science teachers as possible via distance education. With

the introduction of distance education components the program has reached nearly 200

students since 1986. The ultimate vision for the program is to advance the distance

education delivery systems so that as many 400 students will have access to the

educational opportunity.

Historically the institution has operated the MTS program with a combination of

scholarship, institutional, and federal funding. If appropriated this request would enhance

the outreach and operational efforts for the masters program and supplement those other

sources. Specifically, the funding would support two distinct efforts:

•

$100,000 for the support of students through the 20 month program and

•

$100,000 for a follow-up study including data collection and analysis of the

program effectiveness via student outcomes

The PED notes that this legislation supports Goal 1 of PED’s A Strategic Action Plan for

Advancing Math and Science Education in New Mexico 2007-2010 : “Increase student interest,

participation and achievement in math and science" and, specifically, Strategy 1.3: “Strengthen

the content and pedagogical knowledge and leadership skills of math and science

educators…"(PED, 2007)

GH/nt