SRC-TNM S.B. 1627 75(R) BILL ANALYSIS Senate Research Center S.B. 1627 By: Duncan Education 4-6-97 As Filed DIGEST Currently, the State Auditor's Office (SAO) produces reports intended to help Texas school districts make the best use of their funding. The first report, Management Audit of Public Schools: Making the Most of Our Education Dollars, contained a series of recommendations with estimated statewide savings of $640 million annually. In May 1993, SAO produced a second report of which the current Savings Profile System for Texas School Districts is a product of that report. This system was designed to enhance the accountability of public education by providing comparative information on school districts' non-instructional expenditures. S.B. 1627 would outline provisions regarding the provision of certain comparison data for public school districts. PURPOSE As proposed, S.B. 1627 outlines provisions regarding the provision of certain comparison data for public school districts. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY This bill does not grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 42.006, Education Code, to require the Texas Education Agency (agency) to make available to school districts through the Internet information on the students, student performance, staffing, and financing of Texas public school districts, using data from the Public Education Information Management System. Requires the agency to provide the information by county and region to enable a district to compare its results to those of neighboring districts, its region, and statewide averages. SECTION 2. Requires the State Auditor's Office to discontinue its production of the annual Savings Profile System for Texas School District reports. SECTION 3. (a) Requires the Texas Education Agency to make available through the Internet the information required by Section 42.006(d), Education Code, as added by this Act, as soon as practicable. (b) Requires the Texas Education Agency, on request by a school district, to provide a report containing data comparable to that provided by the State Auditor's Office in its Savings Profile System for Texas School Districts reports until the information required by Section 42.006(d), Education Code, as added by this Act, becomes available on the Internet. (c) Requires the Texas Education Agency to notify each school district of the availability of the reports provided in Subsection (b) and inform each district of when the school district data provided in the report will become available on the Internet. SECTION 4. Emergency clause. Effective date: upon passage.