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

SPONSOR Nava

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2-4-2008

HB

SHORT TITLE Post-Secondary Reporting to High Schools

SB 533

ANALYST Dearing

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

$500.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL OPERATING BUDGET IMPACT (dollars in thousands)

FY08

FY09

FY10 3 Year

Total Cost

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

Total

*$.01

*$.01

*$.01 Recurring General

Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

*Please see narrative

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

Public Education Department (PED)

Department of Information Technology (DOIT)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 533 appropriates $500 thousand from the general fund to the Higher Education

department for the development of a database to provide information to public high schools on

the outcomes of their students in their first year of college while attending a New Mexico public

post-secondary educational institution.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $500 thousand contained in Senate Bill 533 is a recurring expense to the

Senate Bill 533 – Page

2

general fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY09 shall

revert to the general fund.

*Additional reporting included in Senate Bill 533 would increase administrative costs at post-

secondary institutions, potentially including additional costs to for database management.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

According to the department, HED currently supports a higher education student database called

the Data Editing and Reporting System (DEAR). The legacy database was originally designed to

run the funding formula for higher education and is still used for that purpose. The DEAR

system contains the data elements that can provide the last high school attended and graduation

information, and therefore can report the student file information with majors, credit hours

earned, and semester to semester information, but the NMHED does not collect GPA for

postsecondary students. SB533 would impact the design of the current database because some of

the data elements that would be required to improve instruction, student preparation and

advisement are not included in the current collection requirements.

Although there are development requirements for a unique student identifier elsewhere in statute;

it is unclear as to how this legislation relates to the Public Education department’s Student

Teacher Accountability Reporting system as well as a unique student identifier requirement,

given that it seeks the creation of a new reporting database to be administered by the Higher

Education department. Of note there have been historical issues affecting data-sharing at the

Higher and Public Education departments, primarily due to a lack of seamlessness among

datasets used by the two agencies.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

If enacted, the LFC recommends that the Higher Education department submit a plan for

program evaluation with specific program goals and criteria for assessing the timeliness and

effectiveness of development and provide suggested outputs, outcomes and performance

measures to evaluate the performance of state government programs as prescribed in the

Accountability in Government Act.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

*According to the department of Information Technology, platform and database will require

initial and continued technical administration, user administration and training.

PD/mt