SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 12

48th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2008

INTRODUCED BY

Cynthia Nava

FOR THE LEGISLATIVE EDUCATION STUDY COMMITTEE

A JOINT MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE PUBLIC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT TO STUDY HOW SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION FUNDING FOR SALARIES AND BENEFITS IS BEING SPENT.

     WHEREAS, each year, the legislature appropriates money to the public education department to fund to- and from-school bus transportation in public school districts statewide; and

     WHEREAS, current law allows school districts to provide school bus transportation to students through the use of school bus service contracts, either with individual owner-operators or private school bus contractors or both; and

     WHEREAS, by public education department rule, a person who owns only one bus and who drives the bus on a full-time basis is, as a driver, considered an employee of the school district, while a person who owns more than one bus is considered a self-employed private school bus contractor who hires the contractor's own employees; and

     WHEREAS, since 1994, the money distributed through school bus service contracts by the public education department to private school bus contractors has included a thirty-five percent reimbursement rate for employee benefits paid by a private school bus contractor to employees; and

     WHEREAS, private school bus contractors may provide up to thirty-five percent employee benefits for their employees; and

     WHEREAS, the public education department reports that fewer than ten percent of the current private school bus contractors provide any form of employee benefits for their employees;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the public education department, the legislative education study committee and the legislative finance committee, in collaboration with public school district administrators and representatives of private school bus contractors, be requested to examine the funding of school transportation contracts to ensure that the employees of private school bus contractors have full access to the wages and benefits available to the contractor; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the public education department report its findings and recommendations to the legislative education study committee by October 1, 2008; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the secretary of public education and the directors of the legislative education study committee and the legislative finance committee for appropriate distribution.

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