Report: Classrooms need more money

Logan Schools Superintendent and State Rep. Dennis Roch agree with portions of a report released by Think New Mexico stating New Mexico school districts are spending too much on administration and too little in the classroom, but feels budgeting should be made at the local level.

According to the report released in Oct., only 57 cents of every dollar spent on education goes to instruction statewide. The remainder is used to pay administrative costs such as school boards, superintendents and various expenses that don’t directly impact students.

The report highlighted the Texico School district that has allocated more spending to the classroom, noting the school’s central office has only three employees: the superintendent, a business manager and a secretary. In 2016, Texico had a 95 percent graduation rate and was also ranked seventh in the state for reading and ninth for math in 2017.

The report sites “Texico’s success demonstrates that every school district in New Mexico can perform at a high academic level.”

The report indicates if the state reduced its administrative spending to match the national average, nearly $55 million could be reallocated to the classroom.

Think New Mexico official will advocate for spending reforms during the 2018 legislative session, recommending that the legislature and governor establish minimum percentages of each school district’s (and charter school’s) budget that must be spent in the classroom, rather than on administrative expenses. The minimum percentages would vary based on district size, as larger districts with better economies of scale should be able to spend a higher proportion of their budgets in the classroom.

“Decisions on what is best for our students should not be made by people who are three hours from our students,” Roch said.

Roch said setting a minimum percentage for classroom spending could impact smaller school district, where administrative cost already take up a large portion on the budget. He said by setting a minimum spending limit the state takes away local flexibility that school districts use to hire personnel, staff or teachers.

“I understand the logic of reducing administrative cost, but the decisions on what is best for the school district should be left in the hands of local administrators, school board members and staff,” Roch said.

Roch said there are services, expenses under administrative cost that must be paid for by school district. He said these expenses include phone, Internet and postage that are paid through the administrative funds.

“Even though services like the internet serves the entire school it is not coded as class room spending,” Roch said.

One area of the report Roch said he agreed with is the recommendation of reducing the amount of reports required by school districts to be submitted to the New Mexico Public Education Department.

The report shows that districts are spending roughly 15,000 staff hours to generate reports for the state and federal governments. If PED took over the responsibility of producing these reports, the costs would be cut by two-thirds, saving $46.5 million.

“School district are spending a lot submitting hundreds of reports to the state with data compiled on various items including transportation, special education and school vaccination, Roch said.

Roch said these reports are completed and submitted by office staff, not teachers, the district has to use administrative funds to hire the office staff for the reports. He said a lot of the data, information submitted in is available to the state through different mechanisms.

“The money saved by a reduction of state reporting requirements could be budgeted for services, material to improve our students success,” Roch said. “The reporting requirements takes funding away from school districts. That in turn impacts the mission of the schools, which is to educate children.”

Fred Nathan, Think New Mexico founder and executive director, said he will approach lawmakers about introducing legislation during the upcoming session.