AN ACT

 1-1     relating to eligibility to serve as a public member or officer of

 1-2     the State Board for Educator Certification.

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

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 21.033, Education Code,

 1-5     is amended to read as follows:

 1-6           (a)  The State Board for Educator Certification is composed

 1-7     of 15 members.  The commissioner of education shall appoint an

 1-8     employee of the agency to represent the commissioner as a nonvoting

 1-9     member.  The commissioner of higher education shall appoint an

1-10     employee of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to

1-11     represent the commissioner as a nonvoting member.  The governor

1-12     shall appoint a dean of a college of education in this state as a

1-13     nonvoting member.  The remaining 12 members are appointed by the

1-14     governor with the advice and consent of the senate, as follows:

1-15                 (1)  four members must be teachers employed in public

1-16     schools;

1-17                 (2)  two members must be public school administrators;

1-18                 (3)  one member must be a public school counselor; and

1-19                 (4)  five members must be citizens, three of whom [who]

1-20     are not and have not, in the five years preceding appointment, been

1-21     employed by a public school district or by an educator preparation

1-22     program in an institution of higher education and two of whom are

1-23     not and have not been employed by a public school district or by an

 2-1     educator preparation program in an institution of higher education.

 2-2           SECTION 2.  Section 21.036, Education Code, is amended to

 2-3     read as follows:

 2-4           Sec. 21.036.  OFFICERS.  The board shall elect one of its

 2-5     [citizen] members to serve as presiding officer for a term of two

 2-6     years.  The presiding officer is entitled to vote on all matters

 2-7     before the board.  The board may elect other officers from among

 2-8     its membership.

 2-9           SECTION 3.  Subdivision (4), Subsection (a), Section 21.033,

2-10     Education Code, as amended by this Act, applies only to a person

2-11     appointed as a public member to the State Board for Educator

2-12     Certification on or after the effective date of this Act.

2-13           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-14     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-15     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-16     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-17     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-18     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-19     passage, and it is so enacted.

         _______________________________     _______________________________

             President of the Senate              Speaker of the House

               I hereby certify that S.B. No. 520 passed the Senate on

         April 3, 1997, by the following vote:  Yeas 31, Nays 0; and that

         the Senate concurred in House amendments on May 29, 1997, by the

         following vote:  Yeas 30, Nays 0.

                                             _______________________________

                                                 Secretary of the Senate

               I hereby certify that S.B. No. 520 passed the House, with

         amendments, on May 25, 1997, by the following vote:  Yeas 142,

         Nays 0, one present not voting.

                                             _______________________________

                                                 Chief Clerk of the House

         Approved:

         _______________________________

                     Date

         _______________________________

                   Governor