SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 38

50th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2012

INTRODUCED BY

Lynda M. Lovejoy

A JOINT MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE LEGISLATIVE EDUCATION STUDY COMMITTEE TO STUDY THE PROVISIONS OF LAW GOVERNING THE RURAL ISOLATION UNITS PROVIDED THROUGH THE PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING FORMULA.

     WHEREAS, the Gallup-McKinley county school district is one of the largest of New Mexico's school districts, sprawling across the Navajo Nation one hundred fifty miles long and ninety miles wide; and

     WHEREAS, the school district is only the fifth-largest school district in terms of students, and eighty-five percent of its twelve thousand students are Native American; and

     WHEREAS, since 1976, the Gallup-McKinley county school district has received rural isolation units in the size adjustment unit calculation of the public school funding formula, also known as the "sparsity factor"; and

     WHEREAS, the sparsity factor provides additional program units for the school district based on the number of approved regular senior high schools that are not eligible for small school size adjustment; and

     WHEREAS, this factor of the original equalization formula was designed to fairly fund school districts that had a significant number of rural high schools separated by vast distances, in effect providing funding to the Gallup-McKinley county school district administering what had previously been several separate, small school districts; and

     WHEREAS, the most recent example of the nature of the rurality of that school district is Tse Yi Gai high school, which is located one hundred three miles from school district administrative offices in Gallup and forty-four miles from Crownpoint high school, where Tse Yi Gai students formerly attended; and

     WHEREAS, gradual declines in population in rural McKinley county, coupled with the attempt to establish schools to serve isolated populations, has resulted in the school district missing the rural isolation adjustment by only twenty-two students; and

     WHEREAS, the number of approved senior high schools in the school district not eligible for senior high school size units decreased from four to three in the 2010-2011 school year, and the school district lost one million eight hundred twenty-nine thousand one hundred sixteen dollars ($1,829,116) in rural isolation units for that year, which drastic loss of revenue, on top of the unit value reduction shared by all school districts, will likely mean severe budget cuts in school year 2012 that will go deep into classrooms and frustrate efforts to improve student achievement;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the legislative education study committee be requested to study the law and the funding formula calculations for small school size adjustment and rural isolation units and the need for a hold-harmless provision to minimize such drastic fluctuations in funding for the Gallup-McKinley county school district; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the legislative education study committee report its findings and recommendations to the appropriate interim legislative committee by December 1, 2012; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the director of the legislative education study committee, the public education department and the Gallup-McKinley county school district.

- 3 -