By Garcia H.B. No. 839 76R342 CAS-D A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1-1 AN ACT 1-2 relating to the public school ethics curriculum committee. 1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: 1-4 SECTION 1. (a) The public school ethics curriculum 1-5 committee is established. 1-6 (b) Not later than January 1, 2000: 1-7 (1) the governor, the lieutenant governor, and the 1-8 speaker of the house of representatives shall each appoint three 1-9 members to the committee; and 1-10 (2) the comptroller, the chair of the State Board of 1-11 Education, and the chair of the governing board of the Texas Youth 1-12 Commission shall each appoint one member to the committee. 1-13 (c) Each member appointed to the committee must have 1-14 experience in public school teaching, curriculum development, or 1-15 administration or a background in the study of ethics. 1-16 (d) The committee shall develop an ethics curriculum for use 1-17 in grades one through seven in public schools. The curriculum must 1-18 address fundamental values on which most citizens of the state can 1-19 agree, including respect for the law and the responsibilities and 1-20 rights of citizenship. The curriculum may not address religious 1-21 matters. 1-22 (e) In developing the curriculum, the committee must hold at 1-23 least three public hearings. Each public hearing shall be held in 1-24 a different region of the state. 2-1 (f) The staff of the Texas Education Agency may serve as 2-2 staff for the committee. Sections 2110.003 and 2110.004(a), 2-3 Government Code, apply to the committee. 2-4 (g) Not later than January 1, 2001, the committee shall 2-5 present to the legislature recommendations on a public school 2-6 ethics curriculum. 2-7 (h) The committee is abolished January 31, 2001. 2-8 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the 2-9 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 2-10 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 2-11 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 2-12 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended, 2-13 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its 2-14 passage, and it is so enacted.