By Barrientos                                   S.B. No. 1034

      75R8264 CAS-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to funding instruction in languages other than English in

 1-3     public schools.

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

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 28.002, Education Code, is amended by

 1-6     adding Subsection (k) to read as follows:

 1-7           (k)  The commissioner shall study and prepare a report on the

 1-8     feasibility of requiring that, beginning with the 2005-2006 school

 1-9     year, funding be provided so that one or more courses to learn a

1-10     language other than English is offered to each student in

1-11     kindergarten through grade 12.  The commissioner shall file with

1-12     the 75th Legislature, during the regular session, a preliminary

1-13     report that includes an assessment of the approximate annual cost

1-14     of implementing the requirement and an explanation of the manner in

1-15     which further study of the feasibility of the requirement will be

1-16     done.  Not later than December 1, 1998, the commissioner shall file

1-17     with the legislature a final report on the feasibility of the

1-18     requirement that includes an assessment of the approximate annual

1-19     cost of implementing the requirement.  This subsection expires

1-20     January 1, 1999.

1-21           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-1     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

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

 2-3     passage, and it is so enacted.