By West                                         H.B. No. 1471

      75R4518 ESH-F                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to placement on the minimum salary schedule for public

 1-3     school teachers and librarians.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 21.403, Education Code, is amended to

 1-6     read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 21.403.  PLACEMENT ON MINIMUM SALARY SCHEDULE.  (a)  A

 1-8     teacher or librarian shall advance one step on the minimum salary

 1-9     schedule under Section 21.402 for each year of experience as a

1-10     teacher or librarian until step 20 is reached.

1-11           (b)  The commissioner shall adopt rules relating to the

1-12     service required for purposes of placement on the minimum salary

1-13     schedule, including rules identifying entities for which service

1-14     credit will be granted.

1-15           (c)  For each year of work experience required for

1-16     certification in a career or technological field, up to a maximum

1-17     of two years, a certified career or technology education teacher is

1-18     entitled to salary step credit as if the work experience were

1-19     teaching experience.

1-20           (d) [(c)]  In determining the placement of a teacher or

1-21     librarian on the minimum salary schedule, a district shall credit

1-22     the person for each year of experience without regard to whether

1-23     the years are consecutive.

1-24           (e) [(d)]  As long as a teacher or librarian who received a

 2-1     career ladder supplement is employed by the same school  district,

 2-2     the teacher or librarian is entitled to:

 2-3                 (1)  placement on the minimum salary schedule at the

 2-4     step above the step on which the teacher would otherwise be placed,

 2-5     if the teacher or librarian received a career ladder supplement for

 2-6     level two of the career ladder on August 31, 1993; or

 2-7                 (2)  placement on the minimum salary schedule at the

 2-8     step two steps above the step on which the teacher would otherwise

 2-9     be placed, if the teacher or librarian received a career ladder

2-10     supplement for level three of the career ladder on August 31, 1993.

2-11           SECTION 2.  The commissioner of education shall adopt rules

2-12     as required under Section 21.403, Education Code, as amended by

2-13     this Act, as soon as possible after the effective date of this Act.

2-14     To the extent practicable, the rules shall apply beginning with the

2-15     1997-1998 school year.  If application to that school year is not

2-16     practicable, the rules shall apply beginning with the 1998-1999

2-17     school year.

2-18           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-19     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-20     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-21     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-22     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-23     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-24     passage, and it is so enacted.