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.