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Senate Bill 2178 |
Senate Author: Shapleigh |
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Effective: 9-1-09 |
House Sponsor: Hochberg |
Senate Bill 2178 amends the Education Code to require the commissioner of education by rule to establish a computer lending pilot program to provide computers to participating public schools that make computers available for use by students and their parents. The bill requires the commissioner to establish administrative procedures, including procedures for distributing to a participating public school any surplus or salvage data processing equipment available for distribution under the pilot program or computers donated or purchased for that purpose with funds from any available source, including a foundation, private entity, governmental entity, and institution of higher education. A public school is eligible to participate in the program if 50 percent or more of its students are educationally disadvantaged and the school operates or agrees to operate a computer lending program that allows students and parents to borrow a computer; includes an option for students and parents to work toward owning a computer initially borrowed under the school's lending program, subject to any applicable restrictions regarding the computer's disposition; provides computer training for students and parents; and operates outside regular school hours, including operation until at least 7 p.m. on at least three days each week. The bill requires the commissioner, not later than January 1 of each year, to submit a report to the legislature regarding the computer lending pilot program.
The bill amends the Government Code to require a state agency, a state eleemosynary institution, or an institution or agency of higher education, if a disposition of the agency's or institution's surplus or salvage data processing equipment is not made under state law governing the direct transfer or disposition of such equipment to another state agency, political subdivision, or assistance organization, to make the equipment available to the commissioner for use in the computer lending pilot program. If the commissioner declines to take the equipment, the bill requires that agency or institution to transfer the equipment to a school district or open‑enrollment charter school, to an assistance organization specified by the school district, or to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The bill prohibits the state agency or institution from collecting a fee or other reimbursement from the commissioner for such equipment. All of the bill's provisions expire September 1, 2014.