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, and the use of the compensatory education allotment for certain tutoring services programs.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for SB2023, Committee Report 1st House, Substituted : a negative impact of ($40,499,141) through the biennium ending August 31, 2023.
The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions of the bill.
General Revenue-Related Funds, Five- Year Impact:
Fiscal Year
Probable Net Positive/(Negative) Impact to General Revenue Related Funds
2022
($20,180,936)
2023
($20,318,205)
2024
($20,106,351)
2025
($20,106,351)
2026
($20,106,351)
All Funds, Five-Year Impact:
Fiscal Year
Probable Savings/(Cost) from General Revenue Fund 1
Change in Number of State Employees from FY 2021
2022
($20,180,936)
1.0
2023
($20,318,205)
1.0
2024
($20,106,351)
1.0
2025
($20,106,351)
1.0
2026
($20,106,351)
1.0
Fiscal Analysis
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, and 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 costs under the 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 add costs associated with the Texas Teacher Corps as an allowable use under the Compensatory Education Allotment.
Methodology
According to the Texas Education Agency, the cost associated with the grant program is estimated to be $20.0 million per fiscal year. This would allow the agency to provide $500,000 grants to 40 school districts each year. The agency anticipates that this level of funding would allow each LEA to serve approximately 100 students for six weeks each.
TEA would be required to hire one Grant Coordinator IV to administer the program. The cost of this position would be $110,351 in fiscal year 2022 and $106,351 each year thereafter.
Technology
According to the agency, the cost to develop and implement the requirements in the eGrants application are $70,585 in FY 22 and $211,754 in FY 23 for initial development effort for a total cost of $282,339.
Local Government Impact
No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.