Honorable Larry Taylor, Chair, Senate Committee on Education
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB2023 by Powell (Relating to providing high-quality tutoring services to public school students, including the creation of the Texas Tutor Corps program, the establishment of a COVID-19 learning loss and student acceleration pilot program, and the use of the compensatory education allotment for tutoring services programs.), As Introduced
The fiscal implications of the bill cannot be determined at this time.
The bill would establish the Texas Tutor Corps to support a statewide network of tutors. The program would provide grants to local education agencies (LEAs) on behalf of hard-to-staff and high-need schools for the purpose of establishing local consortia that would provide high-quality tutoring services for students enrolled at the district or school. Among its attributes, the program would provide high-quality training and provide compensation for tutors.
LEAs could use grant funds provided under the program for certain purposes defined in the bill, including providing training, instructional materials, stipends, among other allowable uses. In awarding grants under this section and commissioner of education would be required to consider the amount of funds distributed to an LEA under the school finance system consider the quality of the tutoring proposed to be provided.
The bill would authorize the commissioner of education to leverage federal funding to pay for not more than 50 percent of the costs under the program, including, to the extent authorized by federal law, funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. The commissioner of education would be required to use any funds appropriated or otherwise available for the purposes of this program.
The bill would also establish a COVID-19 learning loss and student acceleration pilot program to provide tutoring intervention to students using a high-quality tutoring program. The bill would require the commissioner of education to prioritize school districts that are providing services under the Texas Teacher Corps program.
The bill would add costs associated with the Texas Teacher Corps as an allowable use under the Compensatory Education Allotment.
Local Government Impact
The fiscal implications of the bill cannot be determined at this time.