By:  Lucio                                              S.B. No. 95
       72S40381 CMB-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the recruitment of teachers.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 11, Education Code, is
    1-5  amended by adding Section 11.37 to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 11.37.  TEACHER RECRUITMENT.  (a)  The commissioner of
    1-7  education may coordinate and administer a comprehensive program to
    1-8  identify the need for teachers in specific subject areas and
    1-9  geographic regions and to encourage members of minority groups to
   1-10  enter or remain in the teaching profession.
   1-11        (b)  The commissioner may implement a plan to identify
   1-12  talented secondary school students and to attract them to the
   1-13  teaching profession.  In cooperation with the commissioner, the
   1-14  principal of each high school in the state shall appoint a
   1-15  volunteer teacher as the teacher recruiting officer for the school
   1-16  to assist in providing information about the merits of the teaching
   1-17  profession and in identifying and encouraging talented students to
   1-18  become teachers.  At least once each school year the commissioner
   1-19  shall sponsor a meeting of the teacher recruiting officers from
   1-20  each high school at which those officers may share information and
   1-21  written materials about the teacher recruitment program.
   1-22        (c)  The commissioner shall encourage the business community
   1-23  to cooperate with local schools to develop recruiting programs
   1-24  designed to attract and retain capable teachers.  The commissioner
    2-1  shall encourage the business community to provide summer employment
    2-2  opportunities for teachers and to assist in finding suitable
    2-3  employment for the spouses of teachers.
    2-4        (d)  The commissioner shall encourage major education
    2-5  associations to cooperate in developing a long-range program
    2-6  promoting teaching as a career and to assist in identifying local
    2-7  activities and resources that may be used to promote the teaching
    2-8  profession.
    2-9        (e)  The teaching fellows program is established under the
   2-10  direction of the commissioner.  The program is designed to provide
   2-11  four-year conditional scholarships of $2,500 a year to high school
   2-12  seniors who intend to teach in the public schools of the state
   2-13  following graduation from a college or university.  The
   2-14  commissioner shall establish standards for the award of the
   2-15  scholarships to ensure that the recipients are highly qualified to
   2-16  teach in the public schools.  The standards must include a minimum
   2-17  grade point average and a minimum score on the scholastic aptitude
   2-18  test.  Funds may not be paid to a student under this subsection
   2-19  until the student has been accepted for enrollment at a college or
   2-20  university approved by the commissioner, and the student has
   2-21  executed an agreement in which the student promises to return the
   2-22  amount of the scholarship, and interest on that amount calculated
   2-23  at five percent each year, if the student fails to remain enrolled
   2-24  in a college or university or to teach in the public schools for at
   2-25  least four of the seven years immediately following graduation.  A
   2-26  person who fulfills the obligations of the agreement is not
   2-27  required to repay the amount of the scholarship or any interest on
    3-1  that amount.  If the amount appropriated by the legislature to
    3-2  provide scholarships under this subsection is insufficient to fund
    3-3  scholarships for all qualified applicants, the commissioner shall
    3-4  give preference to applicants with the greatest financial need who
    3-5  are members of minority groups.  Funds appropriated by the
    3-6  legislature for the teaching fellows program, funds repaid by
    3-7  students who have failed to comply with the conditions on which
    3-8  they received scholarships, and interest on these funds shall be
    3-9  kept in a separate account and may be used only for scholarships
   3-10  awarded under this subsection.
   3-11        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   3-12        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   3-13  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   3-14  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   3-15  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   3-16  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.