No child left indoors: Bill aims to cut kids’ TV time

Groups propose 'sin tax' to fund outdoor education

Staci Matlock | The New Mexican

1/14/2008 - 1/15/08

An alliance of more than a dozen New Mexico environmental groups will lobby again for legislative approval of a 1 percent sales tax — or "sin tax" — on new televisions and video games to fund outdoor education programs.

Such a tax could raise an estimated $4 million a year, according to a legislative study last year. The money would fund programs aimed at teaching students outdoors. "We believe it is such a nominal tax that consumers won't feel it too much, especially if they are educated about where that money goes," said Michael Casaus, the New Mexico youth representative of the Sierra Club.

The proposed excise tax died in committee last year, but the Legislature approved $270,000 for a related project, establishing an Outdoor Classroom program between New Mexico State Parks and the state Public Education Department.

The environmental alliance will ask for a half-million dollars to continue the fledgling Outdoor Classroom program. The Environmental Alliance of New Mexico boasts 30,000 members among its combined groups, which include the Sierra Club, New Mexico Wildlife Federation, Nature Conservancy and 1000 Friends of New Mexico.

According to a study issued last year by the State Parks Division, an estimated 80 percent of New Mexico's students lived within a half-hour of a state park, but less than 10 percent had visited one. The Outdoor Classroom program is intended to help students visit state parks and assist teachers in using the parks for hands-on teaching of science, math and other academic skills. The program grew out of a legislative request in 2005 that the State Parks division and Public Education Department work together.

Last year, state parks launched the program at Clayton Lake, Navajo Lake, Mesilla Valley Bosque and Bottomless Lakes state parks. The program works with educators to develop curriculum, provide teaching materials, pay for busing students to the parks and for service-learning grants.

A portion of the money also went to the Rural Education Bureau of the Public Education Department. "I would love to see this move forward and get funding. A lot of it needs to be used to train teachers," said Donna Grein, the bureau's education administrator. She noted many teachers are not comfortable with how to integrate their lesson plans with existing outdoor educational opportunities like state parks.

Grein doled out the Outdoor Classroom money in the form of $2,500 to $4,000 grants to 13 rural schools around the state. One grant supported an existing program in Eagle Nest, where students from different grades operate a barn for rescued horses. Yet another will support the work of a principal in Clayton who is turning his amateur astronomy hobby into a star-gazing club at Clayton Lake State Park that now attracts students and parents, Grein said. Still another grant helped an ongoing program in the Jemez Valley Schools, where students are creating an outdoor research center with a weather station and water-quality monitoring in a nearby bosque.

Casaus said the "Leave No Child Inside" movement has grown tremendously in the last year. More than 40 diverse organizations have signed a resolution in support of outdoor education, including Santa Fe and Bernalillo counties, the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, the Hispano Round Table, the New Mexico Science Teachers Association and health organizations.

Some studies in the last five years have linked the increasing amount of time children spend watching television or playing video games to lower academic scores, obesity and increased attention-deficit disorder. New Mexico students continue to lag behind their peers in most academic areas, and an increasing number are struggling with obesity, according to state health and education reports.

Grein wholeheartedly supports outdoor education. "It's an efficient way of teaching. You can use outdoor classrooms for so many aspects," she said. "You can take a kid out there and show them history, English, photography, art along with the math and science. It is hands-on learning. And it gets kids outside doing something exciting instead of sitting in the classroom the way we learned."

Other issues the alliance will lobby for this session:

• Amend the Efficient Use of Energy Act to require electric utilities to meet 10 percent of their energy demand by 2020 through helping customers with energy efficiency in homes and appliances. Estimates are that 6,900 new jobs would be created to help people weatherize homes and install high-energy efficiency systems. It would also urge the state Public Regulation Commission to offer incentives to utility companies that help customers become more energy wise.

• Sen. Pete Campos, D-Las Vegas, is expected to carry a bill called the 2 percent solution, or Smart Investments in Public Buildings policy, according to Dan Lorimier of the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club. The bill would require projects seeking funding from legislators' capital-outlay money to be 50 percent more energy efficient than conventional buildings of the same size. Lorimier said the bill mirrors a 2006 executive order requiring state buildings to meet energy efficiency targets.

The bill would impact new buildings as well as renovations or additions to existing buildings. It would apply to the projects legislators champion in their districts such as senior centers, police stations, libraries, welfare offices and public housing projects. "This assures that communities won't be saddled with public buildings that are inefficient," Lorimier said. "We know how to make buildings save half of their energy costs just by some green design principals being applied at the front end."

• The alliance also will seek a one-time funding request of $10 million for restoring New Mexico's river ecosystems. The money would be used for technical studies, community outreach and finding ways to restore water flows in rivers.

Contact Staci Matlock at 470-9843 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.