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

SPONSOR Martinez. R.C.

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/28/08

HB

SHORT TITLE School Math & Science Supercomputer Training

SB 217

ANALYST Cox

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

State Department of Public Education – PED

Department of Higher Education - HED

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

:

Senate Bill 217 would provide two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) from the General Fund

to the Board of Regents of New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMIMT) for

expenditure in fiscal year 2009 for a statewide program that provides training in supercomputers

for middle and high school students and improves teaching techniques in science, mathematics,

engineering and technology.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) 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.

This request was not submitted by NM Tech to the New Mexico Higher Education Department

for review. The Department’s funding recommendation for FY09 is a continuance of FY08

recurring funding in the amount of $60,000.

Senate Bill 217 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

PED notes:

Providing students with opportunities to develop 21

st

Century skills means also providing access

to 21

st

Century tools to develop these skills. The career clusters framework that is used to help all

New Mexico students chart their careers emphasizes the integration of advanced technologies

across the workforce. In terms of information technology applications, students must learn to:

•

Use information technology to access, manage, integrate and create information

•

Manage, analyze and report on interrelated data elements

•

Facilitate group work through management of shared files and online information.

The New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge has demonstrated that the student population

served by this legislation can successfully complete advanced projects that can only be

accomplished with supercomputers when provided adequate instruction and mentor support.

HED notes:

NM Tech is a long-time host of the New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge. The

Supercomputing Challenge provides a learning experience for teams of pre-college students in

scientific inquiry, project management, computational analysis, and presentation skills. The

challenge is a year-long statewide competition for prizes and scholarships. The goal by 2012 is to

have at least one student team compete from each mid-school and high school in New Mexico

and at least one teacher/sponsor with the necessary skills to support student teams.

According to the New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge website

(

http://www.challenge.nm.org/about/

), the opportunity to work on the most powerful computers

in the world is currently available to only a very few students in the United States, so for New

Mexico students, the program offers a unique experience. The Supercomputing Challenge is

open to all interested students in grades 7 through 12 on a non-selective basis. Participants come

from public, private, parochial, and home-based schools in all areas of New Mexico. The

program has no grade point, class enrollment or computer experience prerequisites. The

Supercomputing Challenge is offered at minimal cost to the participants or the school district. It

is sponsored by a partnership of federal laboratories, universities, and businesses. They provide

food and lodging for the kickoff conference during which students and teachers are shown how

to use supercomputers, learn programming languages, how to analyze data, and write reports.

The funds from SB217 will be used to offset costs incurred by students and teachers for travel

expenses to attend the supercomputing conference, which is held at the Glorieta Conference

Center, Sandia National Laboratory, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. In addition to

generating interest in the fields of science, mathematics, engineering, and technology

applications, the New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge allows participating universities like

NM Tech to use the conference as a recruiting tool for New Mexico students who are interested

in pursuing higher education in these fields.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

Companion to HB131; related to HB 137

.

PRC/mt