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.

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