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FOR THE RECORD: This story included an incorrect vote tally for the Senate Education Committee’s action on the bill. It actually passed the committee by a 5-4 vote.
When the New Mexico Schools for the Arts was established in Santa Fe as a state-chartered high school in 2008, the school made the commitment to the Legislature that funding for room and board and outreach would not come from state resources. A bill introduced in the Legislature by state Sen. Nancy Rodriguez would change that.
Senate Bill 164 would amend the New Mexico School for the Arts Act to allow the school to seek public funding for those students financially unable to pay the full cost.
“This bill is about removing barriers,” said Rodriguez, a Democrat from Santa Fe. “That’s what education should be about — removing all barriers possible to ensure students are given the opportunity to excel.”
New Mexico School for the Arts, located in the former St. Francis Catholic elementary school building in downtown Santa Fe, currently has an enrollment of 190 students from all across the state.
It provides academic, dance, music, theater and visual arts programs for students in grades 9-12.
Rodriguez co-sponsored a similar bill last year, but after it was passed in the Senate with just one dissenting vote, time ran out on the Legislative session before it came up for vote in the House.
So Rodriguez is trying again. She said the school is flourishing and deserves to have the funding restrictions lifted in order for it to continue to grow.
“Currently, they are restricted from applying for any kind of state or federal funds. It exists because of private funds,” she said.
Rodriguez said the bill would allow for the school to apply for state appropriations from the general fund, other state sources, capital outlay and federal funds.
According to the bill’s fiscal impact report, the school now raises more than $100,000 per year from private donors to assist students with room and board.
That amount covers the residential costs for just six students, and the school anticipates the number of students in residence to increase to 20 students by the start of the 2013-14 school year.
“It provides assistance for students who cannot pay the full cost,” Rodriguez said. “It fills the gap where they can pay some of the cost, but not the full cost.”
The school, with competitive entry based on auditions, offers a sliding scale for its residential program, which charges $9,500 per student per year. A family of four with a taxable income of less than $25,000 pays 10 percent, or $950. The scale slides up to families with taxable incomes of between $60,000 to $74,999, who pay 80 percent, or $7,600. Families earning more than $75,000 pay the full cost.
Riis Gonzales, the school’s executive director, calls the New Mexico School for the Arts a “phenomenal success story for New Mexico.” It has a graduation rate of 96 percent and was one of just 39 schools in the entire state to receive an “A” grade from the Public Education Department.
“The school is in high demand,” he said. “We had 250 students from across the state apply, and we only have 50 spots available next year, so we’re going to have to run down a lot of students.”
Gonzales said he expects the demand to continue to increase.
“I don’t see it stopping, so the point of the bill is to go back and ask the state to open it up to receive public funding. We just want that door to be open to us,” he said.
Gonzales said the school already raises more than $1 million per year from the private sector to pay for arts classes and outreach, which includes “summer intensives” and master classes.
Like other public schools, it also has receives funding through State Equalization Guarantee Distributions — an average of about $1.5 million per year over the past three years — but those funds can only be spent in classrooms, not for room and board.
The bill was unanimously approved by the Senate Education Committee on Monday and now moves on to the Finance Committee. Rodriguez said the Finance Committee could consider the bill by the end of the week.
If it passes that committee, the bill would go the full Senate for a vote.
