Letter to the New Mexico Public Education Department — Reasonable Level of Tolerance (January 26, 2024)

Summary

A January 26, 2024 letter from the United States Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, to Secretary Arsenio Romero of the New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED); the signature block names Laura Jimenez, Director, Office of State and Grantee Relations. The letter states that NMPED considers LEAs with a membership of 151 to 600 students to be very small, and LEAs with 150 students or fewer to be exceptionally small. It states that NMPED proposes a tolerance of up to an 18 percent decline in per-pupil funding for its very small LEAs and up to a 37 percent decline for its exceptionally small LEAs, and that the Department determined this approach includes a reasonable level of tolerance for fiscal year 2023.

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Full text

                      UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
                          OFFICE OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION




                                       January 26, 2024

The Honorable Arsenio Romero
Secretary of Education
New Mexico Public Education Department
300 Don Gaspar Avenue
Santa Fe, NM 87501

Dear Secretary Romero:

The U.S. Department of Education (Department) received your written plan for a reasonable
level of tolerance when calculating whether the New Mexico Public Education Department
(NMPED) has met State maintenance of equity requirements in fiscal year (FY) 2023 under the
American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP Act). This written plan applies only to a subset of New
Mexico’s local educational agencies (LEAs).

The ARP Act State maintenance of equity requirements help ensure that State funding supports
LEAs with high concentrations of poverty and students who have been subject to longstanding
opportunity gaps in our education system and experienced the greatest impact from the COVID-
19 pandemic. These requirements are vital for ensuring that States maintain funding to address
the impact of the pandemic on students’ education, and for protecting students in high-need and
highest-poverty LEAs from disproportionate cuts if reductions in State effort do occur.

The Department determined that it is consistent with the State maintenance of equity
requirements to allow a State educational agency (SEA) to calculate whether it has maintained
funding equity with respect to its very small high-need and highest-poverty LEAs within a
reasonable “tolerance level.” The Department’s determination is based on the possibility of
significant volatility in the calculated per-pupil funding amounts for very small LEAs caused by
small changes in student enrollment, which may be unrelated to whether an SEA has achieved
the intent of the requirements. (See Frequently Asked Questions, American Rescue Plan
Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Program, Maintenance of Equity
Requirements, July 26, 2022, Question 21(a).)

NMPED considers LEAs with a membership of 151 to 600 students to be very small, and LEAs
with 150 students or fewer to be exceptionally small. Under these proposed thresholds, New
Mexico has 61 very small LEAs and 32 exceptionally small LEAs. According to information
provided by NMPED, New Mexico’s State Equalization Guarantee considers several factors
when determining per-pupil funding including teacher qualifications and weights for student
need. NMPED asserts that calculated per-pupil funding amounts for these very small and
exceptionally small LEAs are significantly affected by small changes in students’ educational
needs and fluctuations in staff specialty and years of service. This makes the annual per-pupil
funding amounts in New Mexico’s very small and exceptionally small LEAs an imperfect
indicator of whether the SEA has achieved the intent of maintaining equity in funding across
LEAs.
Accordingly, NMPED proposes two tolerance levels:
   1. For its 61 very small LEAs, NMPED proposes to implement a tolerance of up to an 18
      percent decline in per-pupil funding. For FY 2023, applying this tolerance would impact
      three LEAs that served 0.21 percent of New Mexico’s students; and
   2. For its 32 exceptionally small LEAs, NMPED proposes to implement a tolerance of up to
      a 37 percent decline in per-pupil funding. For FY 2023, applying this tolerance would
      impact five LEAs that served 0.16 percent of New Mexico’s students.

After reviewing NMPED’s tolerance proposal and accompanying data, the unique circumstances
in the State, and our further State-specific analysis, we have determined that this approach
includes a reasonable level of tolerance when calculating whether New Mexico has maintained
equity for very and exceptionally small LEAs in FY 2023.

We appreciate your diligence in developing this proposal. If you have any questions, please
contact your program officer at: NewMexico.OESE@ed.gov.

                                                  Sincerely,

                                     aura Jimenez Laura Jimenez

                                                  Laura Jimenez
                                                  Director, Office of State and Grantee Relations


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