By Cuellar of Webb H.B. No. 1246
74R4044 ESH-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to public education grants.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Chapter 21, Education Code, is amended by adding
1-5 Subchapter W to read as follows:
1-6 SUBCHAPTER W. PUBLIC EDUCATION GRANT PROGRAM
1-7 Sec. 21.811. PARENTAL CHOICE. Notwithstanding any other
1-8 provision of this code, as provided by this subchapter an eligible
1-9 student may attend a public school in the district in which the
1-10 student resides or may use a public education grant to attend any
1-11 adjoining district chosen by the student's parent.
1-12 Sec. 21.812. ELIGIBILITY. A student is eligible to receive
1-13 a public education grant under this subchapter if the student is
1-14 assigned to attend a public school campus:
1-15 (1) at which 50 percent or more of the students did
1-16 not perform satisfactorily on an assessment instrument administered
1-17 under Section 35.023(a) or (b) in the preceding three years; or
1-18 (2) that was, at any time in the preceding three
1-19 years, identified as low-performing by:
1-20 (A) the commissioner of education under
1-21 Subchapter D, Chapter 35; or
1-22 (B) the comptroller under Section 403.020,
1-23 Government Code.
1-24 Sec. 21.813. FINANCING. (a) A student eligible under
2-1 Section 21.031 to attend school in a school district but who under
2-2 this subchapter attends a public school in another district is
2-3 included in the average daily attendance of the district in which
2-4 the student resides. The district in which the student attends
2-5 school shall report the student's attendance to the district in
2-6 which the student resides in accordance with rules adopted by the
2-7 commissioner of education.
2-8 (b) A student's public education grant is the total state
2-9 and local funding per student for the school district in which the
2-10 student resides. Total funding from state and local sources
2-11 includes textbook allotments under Chapter 12 and special
2-12 allotments under Subchapter D, Chapter 16, but does not include
2-13 small district, sparsity, and cost of education adjustments and
2-14 allotments for technology, teacher compensation, and
2-15 transportation. A student's public education grant is the
2-16 entitlement of the student, under the supervision of the student's
2-17 parent, guardian, or custodian, is not an entitlement of any school
2-18 district, and is paid to a school district solely as a means of
2-19 administrative convenience.
2-20 (c) A school district chosen by a student's parent under
2-21 Section 21.811 is entitled to accept or reject the application for
2-22 the student to attend school in that district but may not charge
2-23 the student tuition in addition to the public education grant. A
2-24 school district may not charge a student attending a school in the
2-25 district under this subchapter tuition that is greater than the
2-26 district's average expenditure per student. The school district in
2-27 which the student resides is entitled to the remainder, if any, of
3-1 the student's public education grant funds.
3-2 (d) The school district in which a student resides shall
3-3 provide each student attending a school in another district under
3-4 this subchapter transportation free of charge to and from the
3-5 school the student would otherwise attend.
3-6 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
3-7 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-8 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-9 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-10 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-11 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-12 passage, and it is so enacted.