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

SPONSOR Sanchez, B.

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/3/08

HB

SHORT TITLE

Albuquerque School District Evaluation

SM 52

ANALYST Shaya

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

NFI

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

No Response Received From

State Department of Public Education (SDPE)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Memorial 52 requests that that the Legislative Finance Committee and the office of

Education Accountability of the Department of Finance and Administration be requested to

conduct an evaluation of the West Mesa cluster schools of the Albuquerque public school district

to determine how, for what purposes and to what schools state and federal funds are allocated;

and that the Legislative Finance Committee and the Office of Education Accountability also

determine whether the Albuquerque public school district is putting its at-risk funding into

schools identified as having the highest dropout rates and other indicators of large at-risk student

populations; and that the evaluation team conducting the study report its findings and

recommendations to the Legislative Finance Committee, the Legislative Education Study

Committee and the Public Education Department by November 1, 2008; and that copies of this

memorial be transmitted to the director of the Legislative Finance Committee, the director of the

Office of Education Accountability of the Department of Finance and Administration and the

secretary of Public Education.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The memorial contains no appropriation. It is assumed the affected agencies can meet the

memorial’s request utilizing existing resources.

Senate Memorial 52 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

Information in the memorial provides the following:

•

With approximately eighty-eight thousand students, the Albuquerque public school

district is the largest school district in the state and one of the largest school districts in

the country; and

•

The student population of the Albuquerque public school district includes a majority who

are Hispanic students, approximately thirty percent who are non-Hispanic Caucasian

students, almost four percent who are African American students and an approximately

two and one-half percent who are Asian students; and

•

The school district encompasses the south valley, southeast heights, far northeast heights

and the west mesa areas of the Albuquerque metropolis; and

•

The Albuquerque public school district includes the entire range of the socioeconomic

scale, with sixty-one percent of its elementary and middle school students receiving free

or reduced-fee lunch; and

•

The state equalization guarantee includes a cost differential that provides school districts

with additional funds based upon certain characteristics that describe students at risk of

dropping out, including mobility, family income, English-language learner status and the

percent of students who receive Title 1 funding; and

•

Because those characteristics are accurate predictors of the number of students who are at

risk of not completing high school, it is important that state funding for at-risk students be

spent in the schools and classrooms that generate the funds; and

•

The schools in the West Mesa school cluster have many students who come from

disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds; and

•

Anecdotal information indicates that those schools are no longer receiving the financial

aid they once received to serve their large numbers of at-risk students; and

•

As a result of decreases in financial aid to the West Mesa cluster schools, these schools

are hampered in their ability to provide the intensive services through Title 1, direct

services and other educational programs that at-risk students need if they are going to

remain in school and graduate;

RS/nt