By Grusendorf                                   H.B. No. 1111

      75R5129 ESH-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to open-enrollment charter schools.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Sections 12.101(a) and (b), Education Code, are

 1-5     amended to read as follows:

 1-6           (a)  In accordance with this subchapter, the State Board of

 1-7     Education may grant a charter on the application of an eligible

 1-8     entity for an open-enrollment charter school to operate in a

 1-9     facility of a commercial or nonprofit entity or a school district,

1-10     including a home-rule school district.  In this subsection,

1-11     "eligible entity" means:

1-12                 (1)  an institution of higher education as defined

1-13     under Section 61.003;

1-14                 (2)  a private or independent institution of higher

1-15     education as defined under Section 61.003;

1-16                 (3)  an organization that is exempt from taxation under

1-17     Section 501(c)(3), Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (26 U.S.C. Section

1-18     501(c)(3)); [or]

1-19                 (4)  a governmental entity; or

1-20                 (5)  a group of teachers organized to operate a school.

1-21           (b)  Each year, the [The] State Board of Education may [not]

1-22     grant not [a total of] more than 200 [20] charters for an

1-23     open-enrollment charter school.  A charter renewal is not

1-24     considered a charter for purposes of this subsection.

 2-1           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-2     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-3     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-4     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-5     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

 2-6     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

 2-7     passage, and it is so enacted.