1-1 By: Sibley S.B. No. 294 1-2 (In the Senate - Filed January 24, 1997; January 28, 1997, 1-3 read first time and referred to Committee on International 1-4 Relations, Trade, and Technology; February 20, 1997, reported 1-5 favorably by the following vote: Yeas 9, Nays 0; 1-6 February 20, 1997, sent to printer.) 1-7 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1-8 AN ACT 1-9 relating to a study project involving the use of computer networks 1-10 in public schools. 1-11 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: 1-12 SECTION 1. Subchapter B, Chapter 32, Education Code, is 1-13 amended by adding Section 32.037 to read as follows: 1-14 Sec. 32.037. COMPUTER NETWORK STUDY PROJECT. (a) The 1-15 agency shall develop a study project to determine the costs and 1-16 benefits of using computer networks, including the Internet, in 1-17 public schools. 1-18 (b) The commissioner shall appoint an advisory committee 1-19 composed of agency personnel, textbook publishers, educators, 1-20 students, members of the legislature, and technology experts to 1-21 outline the central issues to be studied. Those issues must 1-22 include the possibility of delivering, through a computer network, 1-23 updated supplements to textbooks adopted under Chapter 31. 1-24 (c) The study must be: 1-25 (1) conducted using a group of school districts 1-26 selected by the agency to provide a geographically, 1-27 demographically, and economically balanced sample; 1-28 (2) designed to yield results with statewide 1-29 applications; and 1-30 (3) coordinated with the State Board of Education's 1-31 long-range technology plan adopted under Section 32.001, including 1-32 standards for computer literacy adopted under Section 32.001(a)(3). 1-33 (d) The agency shall report the results of the study project 1-34 to the 76th Legislature not later than February 1, 1999. 1-35 (e) This section expires September 1, 1999. 1-36 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the 1-37 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 1-38 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 1-39 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 1-40 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended, 1-41 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its 1-42 passage, and it is so enacted. 1-43 * * * * *