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House Bill 1 (3rd C.S.) |
House Author: Chisum et al. |
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Effective: See below |
Senate Sponsor: Shapiro et al. |
House Bill 1 amends the Education Code, Tax Code, and Government Code to provide property tax relief, enhance public school fiscal and academic accountability, and increase state funding for public education. The bill also amends Education Code provisions relating to school employees, including providing for pay increases, performance incentives, and staff development; high school student performance and course work requirements; and other topics, including school start dates and uniform school board election dates.
Property Tax Relief and Public School Funding: The bill lowers the cap on school district maintenance and operations (M&O) property tax rates from $1.50 per $100 valuation to $1.33 for the 2006 tax year and to $1.00 for the 2007 tax year, and allows for further compression in subsequent years. For districts that imposed M&O taxes at a rate below the $1.50 cap in the 2005 tax year, the bill provides for a rate compression to reduce their M&O tax rates to 88.67 percent of their 2005 rate in the 2006 tax year and to 66.67 percent of their 2005 rate in the 2007 tax year, and provides additional state aid for districts in an amount equal to the sum of: (1) the amount needed for each district to maintain a total of state and local per-pupil revenue equal to either the per-pupil M&O revenue it received in the 2005-2006 school year or the revenue to which it would have been entitled for the 2006-2007 school year under Chapters 41 and 42, Education Code, as those chapters existed on January 1, 2006, whichever is greater; (2) $2,500 for each of the district's teachers, full-time librarians, certified counselors, and nurses; and (3) a high school allotment of $275 per pupil in average daily attendance in grades 9 through 12. The bill includes provisions for the commissioner of education to compute the amount to which each district is entitled, taking into account a variety of specified factors; appropriates $3.825 billion to the Texas Education Agency for distribution to school districts in accordance with these provisions; and clarifies that any appropriations for the reduction of school district M&O tax rates and the attendant state aid may not be used for any other purpose, such as certain funding adjustments or facilities funding.
The bill replaces the fixed dollar amounts currently specified for the Tier 1 basic allotment, the Tier 2 guaranteed yield level, and the Chapter 41 equalized wealth level (currently $2,537 per pupil, $27.14 per pupil per penny of tax effort above $0.86, and $305,000 per pupil, respectively) and sets those at varying amounts based on the level of school district tax effort. The basic allotment is set at the per-pupil amount that would be available to the district at the 88th percentile of per-pupil wealth at a tax rate of $0.86 per $100 valuation (estimated to be $2,748 for the 2006-2007 school year). The guaranteed yield level is set at varying amounts based on a district's tax effort as follows: (1) the tax revenue per weighted pupil per penny of tax effort available to the district at the 88th percentile (estimated to be $31.95 for the 2006-2007 school year) for M&O tax effort above $0.86 and up to the district's compressed M&O tax rate; (2) the tax revenue per weighted pupil per penny of tax effort available to the Austin Independent School District (estimated to be $41.21 for the 2006-2007 school year) for the first six cents over the district's compressed M&O tax rate; and (3) $31.95 for each penny of tax effort above that six cents. The equalized wealth level is capped at: (1) the per-pupil wealth that generates the M&O tax revenue per pupil available to the district at the 88th percentile of per-pupil wealth (estimated to be $319,500 for the 2006-2007 school year) for each penny of tax effort up to the district's compressed M&O tax rate; (2) except as otherwise provided, the per-pupil wealth that generates the M&O tax revenue per pupil available to the Austin ISD (estimated to be $412,100 for the 2006-2007 school year) for the first six cents above the district's compressed M&O tax rate; and (3) $319,500 per pupil for the district's M&O tax effort above that six cents. The six‑cent threshold applicable to the guaranteed yield and equalized wealth levels applies beginning with the 2008-2009 school year, and a temporary threshold of four cents applies for the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 school years. Districts may not levy more than four cents above their compressed M&O tax rate for enrichment for the first two years after the effective date of the bill, and any subsequent increase for enrichment will require voter approval. For property wealthy districts, the tax revenue raised by this six cents of additional tax effort (or four cents in 2006-2007) is not subject to recapture, but only if the corresponding six cents for Chapter 42 school districts is equalized to the level a penny of tax generates in the Austin ISD, and excess revenue (any revenue above $31.95 per pupil per penny of tax effort) raised by any tax effort above that six cents is subject to recapture. The bill also revises the schedule of payments from the foundation school fund to accelerate the final installment payment to certain school districts so that such payment is made on or before August 25.
The bill amends the provisions of the Tax Code governing the calculation of school district rollback rates so as to make any increase of more than four cents above a school district's compressed M&O tax rate for enrichment purposes subject to voter approval. The bill also establishes a one-time uniform election date for voter approval of a school district tax rate for the 2006 tax year that exceeds the district's rollback tax rate; the election must be ordered not later than August 31, 2006, and held on September 30, 2006. The bill also requires school districts to state their current year and prior year M&O, debt service, and total tax rates separately on tax bills or accompanying statements. The bill also contains certain provisions regarding the participation by school districts in tax increment financing and the conduct of the comptroller's school district property value study. The provisions of the bill pertaining to the freeze on school district taxes or residence homesteads of the elderly or disabled did not take effect because they were contingent on a constitutional amendment that did not take effect.
The bill includes other provisions relating to funding for the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Texas School for the Deaf, and alternative juvenile justice programs, where funding is based in part on agreements between such schools and programs and school districts and on funding provided to districts. Finally, the bill allows the commissioner of education to treat a statutory or regulatory reference to a tax rate of $1.50, as the statutes or rules existed on May 1, 2006, as a different tax rate reflecting the effect of property tax rate compression provided by the bill.
Fiscal Accountability: House Bill 1 provides for the establishment of up to three education research centers; for the sharing of student information among such centers, state education agencies, and local school districts in accordance with applicable federal privacy laws; for greater public access to Public Education Information Management System data; and for the creation of an online clearinghouse of information on campus and district best practices relating to instruction, finance, resource allocation, and business practices. It also requires the commissioner of education to study the possibility of adding a uniform indicator to measure effective administrative management through cooperative shared services arrangements, imposes requirements on regional education service centers to promote the use of such arrangements, and adds other requirements relating to the appointment of internal auditors by school districts. In addition, the bill provides for the enhancement of the state's financial accountability rating system, the publication of proposed school district budget summaries, the conduct of a comprehensive third-party review of school district accounting systems, and the establishment of annual spending targets for school districts.
Academic Accountability: House Bill 1 provides for the implementation of an electronic student records system and requires each district, charter school, and public technical, junior, or senior college or public university to participate in the system for the purpose of electronic retrieval and transfer of relevant student information. It provides for the evaluation and reenrollment of a limited English proficiency (LEP) student in a bilingual education or special language program under certain conditions, subsequent to the student's initial transfer out of such a program; adds a measure of progress toward dual language proficiency for LEP students and a measure of progress toward postsecondary success for all students to the academic excellence indicator system; and provides for a measure of annual improvement in student achievement on certain statewide standardized tests. The bill replaces the low-performing campus rating with an academically unacceptable rating; clarifies the specific sanctions and sanction procedures applicable to charter schools and individual campuses and creates new sanctions, including management of certain academically unacceptable campuses by a qualified nonprofit entity or a school district other than the one in which the campus is located; establishes procedures for a school district or charter school to challenge an accountability rating or sanction; requires the commissioner to define the accreditation levels (accredited, accredited-warned, and accredited‑probation); establishes notification requirements and procedures for districts falling in the last two categories; and prohibits unaccredited districts from receiving further state funding.
Education Employees: House Bill 1 requires the implementation of a school leadership pilot program to provide training for school principals and makes that training mandatory for each principal of an academically unacceptable rated campus and that principal's replacement, if any. It creates a mentoring program for beginning teachers, prescribing qualifications and requirements for any teacher to be assigned as a mentor as well as providing for a mentor teacher stipend. The bill provides for a $2,500 salary increase for each full-time teacher, librarian, certified counselor, and nurse. It eliminates the previously provided health care supplement but allows employees to designate a portion of their salary for health care supplementation and provides for a state-funded wage increase for auxiliary support staff in the amount of $500 for full-time employees and $250 for part-time employees. In addition to the salary increases, the bill establishes two locally designed incentive programs—an Awards for Student Achievement Program targeted toward rewarding high achievement at high-poverty schools and providing incentive payments that range from $3,000 to $10,000 for individual teachers, and a more general Educator Excellence Award Program providing individual incentive payments or stipends to teachers and other school employees—and requires employment contracts to stipulate that qualifying employees may receive incentive payments, which are not to be considered an entitlement as part of an employee's salary.
High School-Related Provisions: House Bill 1 requires the establishment of a vertical team of high school educators and college faculty to recommend college readiness standards and expectations, to evaluate the high school curriculum and other instructional requirements to prepare students to succeed in undertaking college-level work, and to recommend steps to align that curriculum with those standards. It charges the P-16 Council with the task of recommending a college readiness and success strategic action plan to increase student success and decrease the number of students having to enroll in developmental courses in college. The bill adds a requirement for students to take four years of English, mathematics, science, and social studies as part of the recommended and advanced high school programs; allows districts to provide flexible school day high school programs for dropout recovery and dropout prevention or for other innovative campus redesign; authorizes public senior colleges and universities to establish a Texas governor's school as a summer residential program for high-achieving high school students; requires any statewide high school end-of-course test to be developed in a manner that allows its use in determining a student's placement in a college course on the same subject; and establishes criteria for use of a district's high school allotment.
Miscellaneous Provisions: Other provisions of House Bill 1 postpone the next scheduled sunset review date for the Texas Education Agency from 2007 to 2012; prohibit a district from starting the school year before the fourth Monday in August, unless the district operates on a year-round schedule, and disallow any waivers from this prohibition; require school board elections to be held jointly with either an election for city officials or a general election for state and county officers, using the same polling places as those other elections; and express the legislature's intent that the State Board of Education forgo further textbook proclamations pending reforms of the state's textbook procurement and purchasing system.
House Bill 1 provisions apply beginning with the 2006-2007 school year unless otherwise provided by the act.