By Cuellar H.B. No. 318
75R2490 ESH-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the public education grant program.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Section 29.202, Education Code, is amended to
1-5 read as follows:
1-6 Sec. 29.202. ELIGIBILITY. A student is eligible to receive
1-7 a public education grant under this subchapter if the student is
1-8 assigned to attend a public school campus:
1-9 (1) at which 50 percent or more of the students did
1-10 not perform satisfactorily on an assessment instrument administered
1-11 under Section 39.023(a) or (b) in the preceding year [three years];
1-12 or
1-13 (2) that was, at any time in the preceding year [three
1-14 years], identified as low-performing by:
1-15 (A) the commissioner under Subchapter D, Chapter
1-16 39; or
1-17 (B) the comptroller under Section 403.020,
1-18 Government Code.
1-19 SECTION 2. Sections 29.203(b) and (d), Education Code, are
1-20 amended to read as follows:
1-21 (b) A student's public education grant is the total state
1-22 and local funding per student for the school district in which the
1-23 student resides. Total funding from state and local sources
1-24 includes adjustments to the basic allotment under Subchapter B,
2-1 Chapter 42, and special allotments under Subchapter C, Chapter
2-2 42[, but does not include small district, sparsity, and cost of
2-3 education adjustments and allotments for technology and
2-4 transportation]. A student's public education grant is the
2-5 entitlement of the student, under the supervision of the student's
2-6 parent, guardian, or custodian, is not an entitlement of any school
2-7 district, and is paid to a school district solely as a means of
2-8 administrative convenience.
2-9 (d) A school district chosen by a student's parent under
2-10 Section 29.201 may not charge the student tuition in addition to
2-11 the public education grant or charge tuition that is greater than
2-12 the district's average expenditure per student. The school
2-13 district in which the student resides is entitled to the remainder,
2-14 if any, of the student's public education grant funds. If the
2-15 average expenditure per student of the district chosen by a
2-16 student's parent is greater than the amount of the student's public
2-17 education grant, the district is entitled to payment of the
2-18 difference from the foundation school fund as provided by rules
2-19 adopted by the commissioner.
2-20 SECTION 3. Sections 29.203(c) and (e), Education Code, are
2-21 repealed.
2-22 SECTION 4. This Act applies beginning with the 1997-1998
2-23 school year.
2-24 SECTION 5. The importance of this legislation and the
2-25 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-26 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-27 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-1 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-2 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-3 passage, and it is so enacted.