Friday, February 10, 2006
House OKs Schools Bill

By Andrea Schoellkopf
Journal Staff Writer

    SANTA FE— Hundreds of schoolchildren from around New Mexico converged Thursday on the state Capitol to plead for new classroom space from state lawmakers.
    Thursday afternoon, the House unanimously passed an omnibus bill that would provide matching funds— not outright appropriations that earlier bills from West Side lawmakers had sought— to school districts. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Rick Miera, D-Albuquerque, now moves to the Senate for consideration.
    House Bill 432, along with Senate Bill 450, requires the districts to provide matching funds for any dollars they receive, so the state would not be out of compliance with terms of a lawsuit where the state was directed to correct inequities and develop a uniform system for funding public school capital outlay.
    "We just cannot give money outright because of the Zuni lawsuit," Miera said in a phone interview with the Journal. "If they had a bill, it would have been found unconstitutional... If you're Albuquerque, you have to have matching funds."
    He said he and other lawmakers began work on this bill last year, long before Gov. Bill Richardson asked for $290 million to build schools in growing districts, including $115 million for Albuquerque's West Side.
    Under the bill, APS would have to come up with $61 million on its own, if it needs $115 million for high schools, APS attorney Art Melendres said in a meeting Wednesday with Albuquerque community leaders and developers.
    "That creates, in short direct terms, a cash-flow problem for the Albuquerque Public Schools because (APS) does not have the $61 million to make the match," Melendres said.
    Miera's bill, however, would advance the full $115 million to APS, which would in turn have to pay back $61 million to the state and refrain from seeking any new funding for construction projects.
    "It's not a gift," Melendres said. "It's an advance. ... All of us know there is no free lunch."
    APS could not apply for any further state funds until it had paid off the money to the state.
    "It provides an incentive to pay it back as soon as possible," Miera said.
    Miera said his bill also provides funding beyond the fast-growing districts by creating new money for school maintenance and providing money for charter schools.
    The bill includes an amendment, however, that would charge interest to school districts that must borrow from the state to complete the schools.
    "I think we're trying to avoid the interest issue," Richardson later told the Journal. "So far, it's moving well. In the end, what we're looking for is a clean package."
    APS bond adviser Paul Cassidy estimates the interest alone on $61 million would cost the district about $4 million a year.
    State Rep. Dan Silva, a Westgate Democrat, said he didn't think the interest amendment would fly.
    "It's our money," Silva said. "Why do we have to pay interest to ourselves? All it does is inflate the costs."
    An estimated 760 students had come up to the Capitol building to ask the Legislature to help build new schools for their districts.
    Mary Alice Kimble, 16, hopped on a 4 a.m. bus Thursday from Las Cruces with 70 other high school students to join students from Rio Rancho, Deming, Albuquerque, Gadsden and Los Lunas, who would receive help to build new schools in growth areas.
    "We came up here to rally for it, so we can have a high school," Kimble said outside the Capitol.
    West Side organizers of the rally had 950 T-shirts printed up, sponsored by local homebuilders groups, that said "Every Child Deserves a Classroom."
    Richardson encouraged the students to lobby the legislators.
    "There's no more important issue than building these new schools in overcrowded areas," Richardson said, praising voters in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and other districts for approving property taxes for schools during elections Tuesday.
    "Your showing up here is a strong message that you want these schools built," he said.
    State Sen. Cynthia Nava, D-Las Cruces, said those districts together add 18 new students each day of school.
    "That's almost a classroom," said Nava, sponsor of the Senate version of the education bill.
    The students themselves had little time to mingle with the lawmakers, though some, like those from Edward Gonzales Elementary, sought out their legislators for photo opportunities before having lunch and taking the bus back to school.
    "I got to see this place for the first time," said Rio Rancho seventh-grader Rebecca Basquez, before boarding the bus back to Lincoln Middle School.

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