Altogether, there
were over 600 bills addressing education issues in this year's
legislative session. Despite the voluminous number of measures
introduced on all topics, many important education bills were
successful in the 2007 session. Most education legislation seemed
motivated by good intentions. The notable exceptions to this general
rule were bills attempting to create voucher-like tuition tax credits
and bills attempting to bring an early end to educator return-to-work
provisions in the Educational Retirement Act. Both ideas ultimately
failed, but not before some hard work and close calls.
School Funding Measures
Two appropriation acts affected public school funding, although the
General Appropriation Act of 2007 (CS/HB 2, et al., as amended)
contained most of the funding for public school support. The so-called
House Bill 2, Jr. Bill CS/SB 611, included a number of public
education related appropriations. Both of these acts were signed, with
partial vetoes, by the Governor.
For school year 07-08, the Legislature appropriated approximately $2.5
billion in public school support and related recurring appropriations,
an increase of approximately $197.8 million, or 8.6 percent, over
06-07. The 07-08 statewide program cost of approximately $2.3 billion
represents an increase of about $153.5 million, or 7.1 percent, over
the current school year. The Public Education Department has
established an initial unit value for school year 2007-2008 of
$3,645.77, an increase of $199.33, or 5.8 percent, above the 2006-2007
final unit value of $3,446.44.
The Legislature appropriated over $795 million for higher education,
an increase of approximately $36 million over last year's
appropriation. This also includes a 5% average salary increase for all
higher education employees, and a 0.75% increase in the employer's
contribution to the Educational Retirement Fund for FY 08.
However, even though both public education and higher education
appropriations increased in FY 08, overall their share of total
recurring General Fund appropriations has declined: for public
education, from 45% to 44.8%, and for higher education, from 14.9% to
14.3%, continuing a multi-year trend.
Compensation
The Legislature’s employee compensation package, while not all we
wanted, provided adequate dollars for significant employee salary
increases, as well as the final phase of the three-tiered licensure
minimum salaries for teachers and the FY 08 increase in the employer’s
contribution to the Educational Retirement Fund.
The budget bill still requires an average 5% salary for all groups of
school employees. The salary increase language did not require that
employees work any additional work days in order to receive the raise.
The measure contains the averaging language that we requested last
year to add flexibility for collective bargaining. The measure
contains language similar to last year requiring all school districts
to demonstrate that they have provided an average 5% salary increase
to "all teachers and other licensed employees" and an average 5%
salary increase to "all non-licensed school employees" prior to the
approval of a school district's budget. The language once again
requires that the Secretary of Education "verify that school districts
and charter schools have implemented an average five percent salary
increase for teachers prior to implementing the minimum salaries for
level three-A teachers." This means that extra money, above and beyond
the 5% increase has been appropriated for this purpose and that amount
should be added only after the average 5% increase has been applied.
Teacher salary schedules should reflect a 5% average increase and then
those level three-A teachers who are not at the $50,000 minimum should
be brought up that minimum.
An "additional two percent average salary increase for those
instructional support providers who practice licensed professions that
require a bachelor’s or higher degree and whose annual salaries on a
full-time basis are below sixty thousand dollars ($60,000) is also
required." This was added to address those instructional support
providers, such as Counselors, Special Education Ancillary Staff, etc.
who have not received the benefit of the teacher three tiered minimum
salaries. This should be sufficient to bring most of these employees
back to teacher salary schedules at the same minimum salary levels as
teachers. The Public Education Department has provided the following
guidance to School Districts regarding salary considerations in
2007-08 budgets:
1. Salary increase requirements:
A. An average five percent salary increase must be given to each
of the following groups:
all teachers, other instructional staff, other licensed and
unlicensed staff effective July 1, 2007.
B. An additional two percent average salary increase for
instructional support
providers who practice licensed professions that require a
bachelor’s or higher degree and whose annual salary on a full-time
basis are below $60,000. ($60,000 is not a minimum salary
requirement.)
The following groups are defined in state statute Section
22-1-2(F.) NMSA 1978 as instructional support providers and are
included unless otherwise noted:
- Educational assistant (not included) - School counselor
- Social worker - School nurse (LPN not included)
- Physical therapist (assistants not included) - Speech language
pathologist
- Recreational therapist - Psychologist
- Interpreter for the deaf (not included) - Diagnostician
- Occupational therapist (assistants not included)
C. An additional two percent average salary increase (above the
average five percent) for principals and assistant principals with
priority given to the level of responsibility each principal or
assistant principal is charged with as defined in HB35 or existing
.
D. An average five percent must be given to each group first. The
additional 2% average salary increase should be given after the
average 5% to the instructional support providers, principals and
assistant principals.
E. The resulting salaries for Level three-A teachers, principals
and assistant principals should then be compared with the minimums
as stated below. If the minimums are not met, the salary must be
increased to the minimum amount. (If HB35 is not signed, the
current minimums in Section 22-10A-11 NMSA 1978 will remain in
effect. Current statute does not provide a minimum salary for
assistant principals.)
2. Minimum salary requirements-
2007-2008 Level three-A teachers minimum salary - $50,000
HB35 which passed this session modified the minimum salaries that
were in Section 22-10A-11 NMSA 1978 adds a responsibility factor
and assigns multipliers to determine the . . . salary minimums for
school principals . . .
Other Funding Initiatives
Among the initiatives included in the program cost are sufficient
dollars to fund enrollment growth and insurance premium increases, as
well as:
• funding of
fixed costs, such as utility charges;
• a mandatory average 5.0 percent salary increase for all school
employees;
• an additional mandatory average 2.0 percent salary increase for
professional instructional support providers with salaries below
$60,000 a year, as well as for principals and assistant principals;
• the 0.75 percent increase in the employer’s contribution to the
Educational Retirement Fund for 07-08 (A controversy has arisen over
the Governor’s attempt to veto an addition 0.75% increase in
retirement funding to pre-pay the 2008-09 employer’s share of
retirement contributions. The Governor vetoed some language in HB2
that directed how the funds are to be spent, but left in place a
line-item detailing the appropriation; legal wrangling over whether
or not the funds are actually vetoed continues.);
• the $50,000 minimum salary for Level 3-A teachers to implement the
fifth and final year of the phase-in of the three-tiered licensure
system; and
• $8.0 million for elementary physical education programs for
students in kindergarten through sixth grade in eligible schools,
included for the first time within the Public School Funding
Formula.
“HB 2, Junior” appropriations to public education total approximately
$9.3 million: $3.3 million for various public school programs and an
additional $6.0 million for use by PED statewide, including $2.0
million for pre-kindergarten, $2.0 million for breakfast for
elementary students, and $2.0 million for after school enrichment
programs. An additional $4.9 million is appropriated to other agencies
for a variety of programs, including $2.0 million to the Children,
Youth and Families Department for pre-kindergarten.
School-Plus, a Major Initiative to Close Achievement
Gaps Passes
The education partners recommended funding for a new “school plus”
program to help close achievement gaps. In response to this idea,
Representative Mimi Stewart sponsored HB 198, enacting a new section
of the Public School Code to create K-3 Plus as a six-year pilot
project, administered by the Public Education Department. As enacted
the bill provides some $7.5 million to provide extended time in
kindergarten through grade 3 for students in high-poverty public
schools; priority is granted schools with Kindergarten Plus programs
that have received one or more satisfactory annual evaluations. The
act requires that teachers and educational assistants shall be paid at
the same rate and under the same terms for K-3 plus as teachers and
educational assistants are paid for regular educational programs and
allows the department to use up to 4.0 percent of the appropriation
for professional development and for administrative costs. This
program would provide thousands of low-income students with 25 more
instructional days in the summers before and after the regular school
year, helping prepare them for future success. School Plus will target
resources, provide extra time for those students who need it most, and
will help to close the opportunity gap by providing the extra time
some students need to be successfully reading by third grade.
High School Redesign
One of the Legislature's most comprehensive pieces of legislation this
session -particularly in terms of preparing students better to succeed
in college - was high school redesign.
• This bill
provides the Diploma of Excellence for all students who enter grade
9 in school year 2009-2010 or later. This diploma requires a total
of 24 units for graduation, one of which must be Algebra II or a
higher-level math and at least one of which must be taken as an AP,
distance learning, or dual credit course. The bill contains a parent
opt-out provision for math at the Algebra II level, but not for the
fourth year of math required to graduate.
• Students will also be required to take two, rather than one, of
their three required science units as laboratory sciences.
• The communications skills unit will be replaced with a choice of
one unit in a career cluster, workplace readiness, or a language
other than English.
• Beginning in school year 2008-2009, middle schools must offer
Algebra I in grade 8 and high schools must offer dual credit and
distance learning courses. Beginning in school year 2009-2010, high
schools must offer at least two years of a language other than
English.
• By school year 2008-2009, the existing 9th grade assessment will
be replaced with college and workplace readiness assessments in
grades 9, 10, and 11.
• By January 2008, PED must announce in rule its proposal for a new
standards-based assessment or portfolio of standards-based
indicators for high school graduation, which must take the place of
the existing High School Competency Exam for students graduating in
school year 2010-2011.
• Minimum instructional requirements for grades 1 to 3 are increased
to include science and social studies.
• The high school dropout age is raised to 18, and employment
certificates currently available that allow students aged 14or older
to attend high school part time are eliminated.
The establishment
of college and work-ready graduation requirements dovetails with the
commitment that New Mexico made when the state joined the American
Diploma Project (ADP) Network on September 28, 2006. New Mexico is one
of 29 states participating in this formal alignment process to ensure
that state high school standards align with postsecondary and
workplace expectations, and high school students graduate ready for
college or the workplace.
A related high
school reform bill addresses the following issues:
• a requirement
that the Public Education Department collaborate with public teacher
preparation programs to create a uniform statewide teacher education
accountability reporting system so that we can keep better track of
our new teachers as they complete their program of studies;
• a requirement that teacher preparation programs work with colleges
of arts and sciences and high schools to develop a model teacher
mentorship program .
• a change on how teacher mentorship funding is distributed to
school districts to reflect the current number of beginning
teachers; and more than double the amount of funding for new teacher
mentoring. (The legislative appropriation for the beginning teacher
mentorship program has more than doubled, from approximately
$900,000 to$2.0 million, bringing the amount per teacher from
approximately $368 to$1,300, still short of the national average of
$2,000 per new teacher, but a good deal better for New Mexico.); and
• a provision requiring PED to provide by rule for training and
other requirements to support the use of unlicensed content-area
experts, such as retired employees from the national labs, as
resources in classrooms, team-teaching, online instruction,
curriculum development or other purposes.
The 2007
Legislature passed legislation creating a statewide Cyber Academy to
provide a system for distance education through a collaborative among
public education, higher education, telecommunications networks, and
other state agencies that provide distance education to school
districts, specifically for grades 6 through 12.
The Cyber Academy will also provide convenient professional
development for educators, a particularly welcome opportunity for
those who live great distances from postsecondary educational
institutions.
The Cyber Academy will serve as a way to deliver courses taken for
dual credit, the subject of another bill. The dual credit bill brings
a workable uniformity and the prospect of a secure funding mechanism
to dual credit arrangements. School districts will pay for textbooks
and course supplies, institutions of higher education will waive all
general fees, and the Higher Education Department, with input from the
educational institutions, will revise procedures in the higher
education funding formula to encourage those institutions to waive
tuition.
The Mathematics and Science Education Act creates a bureau in the
Public Education Department, an advisory council, and a fund. The
General Appropriation Act included $2.5 million for summer reading,
math, and science institutes, up from $1.7 million last year.
Capital Outlay
The Legislature appropriated over $110 million in direct capital
outlay appropriations for public education-related projects.
Appropriations from severance tax bond receipts total approximately
$38.3 million and include $4.5 million to the Charter School Capital
Outlay Fund for charter school facilities. General Fund appropriations
total approximately $71.7 million and include $4.3 million to the
Educational Technology Deficiency Correction Fund to address
educational technology infrastructure deficiencies in public schools
statewide and $250,000 to the Charter Schools Stimulus Fund to provide
for the initial costs of renovating and remodeling existing buildings
and structures statewide.
Signed, but partially vetoed, by the Governor, CS/SB 395, Public
School Capital Outlay Omnibus Bill, amends several sections of current
law to:
• increase the
state guarantee in the Public School Capital Improvements Act (2.0
mill levy) from $60 to $70 per unit per mill;
• extend the lease-payment assistance program from FY 10 to FY 20;
increase the lease payment allocation to school districts and
charter schools from $600 to $700 per MEM; and allow lease payment
assistance funds to be used to finance lease-purchase agreements;
and
• extend the Deficiencies Correction Program from June 30, 2007 to
June 30, 2008 and extend the period of time available to expend
awards made to correct “outstanding deficiencies” in public school
building roofs from September 30, 2007 to September 30, 2008.
Charter Schools
Among provisions relating to charter schools, the 2007 Legislature
amended statute to:
• allow a
state-chartered charter school to participate in the standards-based
application process and to be eligible for grant assistance;
• allow a school district to lease available space to a charter
school as long as the lease payments do not exceed the amount the
charter school receives from the lease-payment assistance program;
• require future resolutions for an “HB 33” tax imposition (Public
School Buildings Act) submitted to qualified voters by a district to
contain the capital needs of local- and state chartered charter
schools located within the district; require that a proportionate
share of the tax revenue, based on membership, be distributed
directly to the charter school(s); and extend from five to six years
the maximum allowable time for imposition of the tax; and
• create the Charter School Capital Outlay Fund (with a repeal date
of July 1, 2012) and establish two priorities for grants from the
fund: (1) to assist state-chartered charter schools with the local
match for an approved public school capital outlay project; and (2)
if dollars are not needed for the first priority, to provide
assistance to charters schools in securing public buildings by 2010.
Elementary Physical Education
A measure to include elementary physical education program units in
the public school funding formula and to establish priorities for
inclusion of schools in the program, along with an appropriation of $8
million to begin implementing elementary physical education in high
priority schools. The four phase in will be first implemented in
public schools that have the highest proportion of students most in
need based on the percentage of students eligible for free or
reduced-fee lunch or grade-level schools that serve an entire school
district and in public schools with available space. The bill provides
for a four year phase-in of the physical education program in grades
K-6 and allows twenty-five percent of the student population served
each year. The PED enrollment figures for SY 2005-2006 indicate there
were approximately 172,000 children in grades K-6. Therefore, roughly
43,000 K-6 students could be added to the program each year for the
four-year implementation in the state’s 449 elementary schools
Curricula Alignment
A bill passed to require school districts to require each school
district to align its curricula in each grade level for mathematics by
school year 2008-2009 and for language arts and science by school year
2009-2010, and to require school districts to align professional
development related to curricula for classroom teachers and
educational assistants with state standards.
Retirement Legislation
All attempts to alter the return to work provisions of the Educational
Retirement Act failed. Several legislators introduced legislation to
eliminate the Return-to-Work (RTW) provisions of the Educational
Retirement Act. Essentially the proposals would have grand-parented
retired members who are already employed by an affiliated employer on
or before June 30, 2007 under existing law. However, the proposals
would have effectively ended the current programs for Educational
Retirees on June 30, 2007 and would have substituted a more
restrictive version that would run from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2009.
This two-year RTW program would have provided a means of placing
qualified RTW employees in hard-to-fill positions that have been
designated by resolution of school boards as “critical need"
positions. The primary excuse given for proposing an end to Educators’
RTW programs was a potential fiscal impact on fund solvency and
whether the RTW programs encourage people to retire sooner than they
would have otherwise. If that were true, it would mean that the
pension is being paid out longer than actuarially anticipated. However
the Educational Retirement Board related that its actuary indicated
that the RTW program has no fiscal impact on the funding of the
retirement plan and concluded such changes would probably not have a
fiscal impact its fund solvency. This rationale led to Educational RTW
being removed from the final version of the bill that passed, thus
only affecting the Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA).
Even this bill was finally vetoed by Governor Richardson.
The Retiree Health Care Authority (RHCA) faces the challenge of a
narrow (9 to 11 years) solvency period that must be addressed either
by increased distributions, increased premiums charged to the
retirees, or decreased benefits. For the past several years, NMRHCA
has operated at a deficit. The deficit has been fueled by membership
growth of 8% per year and double-digit claims cost increases.
Representative Lucky Varela’s HB 728 assists NMRHCA to continue to
operate and provide much needed health care benefits to eligible
retirees and their dependents of participating public institutions.
The bill provides a supplemental monthly distribution of $250 thousand
for FY08, FY09 and FY10. The bill also requires a study relating to
the Retiree Health Care Fund conducted by a joint staff working group
from the Legislative Finance Committee, the Legislative Council, the
governor’s office and the Retiree Health Care Authority. This working
group will look at long-term actuarial trends, contribution rate
equity between retirees and current employees, comparisons of the
state and the local entities and the feasibility of creating two
separate programs and whether or not the fund should be placed in an
irrevocable trust. The working group will report its findings no later
than December 15, 2007.
Speaker Ben Lujan proposed HB 1086,which would have placed the RHCA’s
funds in an an irrevocable trust to hold in trust all funds, assets,
proceeds, income, contributions and payments from any source
whatsoever paid to or otherwise accruing to the Fund. In addition to
protecting the assets of the fund for the provision of retiree health
care benefits, HB 1086, if passed, would have reduced the valuation of
the agency’s unfunded actuarial accrued liability (UAAL) from
$5,000,000.0 to $3,730,000.0. This valuation is the result of a new
General Accounting Standard Board requirement 43. Although bond rating
agencies have said they will not revise state bond ratings in the
first year of GASB 43 implementation, this bill sought to lower the
unfunded liability prior to any revision of the State Bond Rating by
placing the assets (and all future assets) in an irrevocable trust.
This legislation passed the House but died in the Senate Finance
Committee.
Voucher-like Tuition Tax Credits Came too Close for
Comfort
A combination of leaders and members in the House kept tuition tax
credits from reaching the floor of the House. Several Representatives
were ready to filibuster the idea to death if need be. Those to whom
much credit belongs for killing this bad idea are Representative
Sheryl Williams-Stapleton, Representative Rick Miera, Representative
Al Park, Representative Mimi Steward, Representative Gail Chasey,
Representative Mary Helen Garcia, and Representative Joni Gutierrez.
Negotiations between the Senate and House over a tax package led to
the creation of the education tax credit package with this item
included. It would have provided a tax credit for donors to
scholarship organizations that give scholarships to high poverty
children to attend private and religious schools.
House Bill 1012, was originally sponsored by Representative Bobby
Gonzales to provide a refund of taxes on school bus fuel.
Unfortunately members of the Senate Finance Committee amended the
measure on the Senate Floor to add Home School Tax Credits and Tuition
Tax Credits! The idea was sold as part of the "the deal" for an entire
tax package. Had the measure reached the House Floor for concurrence
with the Senate Amendments, Representative Gonzales would have been
stuck with either recommending concurrence (and supporting tuition tax
credits) or recommending the killing of his own bill. Fortunately the
strategy pursued by the potential filibusters, the leadership, and
Representative Gonzales prevented this from happening by keeping the
vote from ever being necessary!
Unfortunately "the deal" stuck in the Senate as 12 Democrats joined 14
Republicans to vote in favor of the measure, with $2.1 million in tax
credits for scholarships for high poverty students to attend private
schools. Some Senators took a walk rather that vote on this bad idea,
and we appreciate their support. But the true brave defenders of
public schools were those who voted no: Senator Michael Sanchez,
Senator Mary Jane Garcia, Senator Lidio Rainaldi, Senator Cisco
McSorely, Senator Richard Martinez, Senator John Grubesic, and Senator
Lynda Lovejoy. These Senators deserve our appreciation. The actual
vote in the Senate on this very bad idea follows.