By Dunnam                                             H.B. No. 3485
         76R7519 ESH-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to financial incentives to aid in the recruitment and
 1-3     hiring of qualified teachers in areas of demonstrated shortage.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter H, Chapter 21, Education Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Section 21.358 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 21.358.  RECRUITMENT INCENTIVE.  (a)  From funds
 1-8     appropriated for the purpose, the commissioner may award grants to
 1-9     school districts that demonstrate a teacher shortage in a critical
1-10     area, including math, science, special education, bilingual
1-11     education, and early reading.
1-12           (b)  A district receiving a grant under this section shall
1-13     use the grant money to provide a salary supplement as an incentive
1-14     in the recruitment and hiring of qualified teachers in the areas in
1-15     which the district has demonstrated a shortage.
1-16           (c)  A salary supplement paid from a grant under this section
1-17     is not considered in determining whether the district is paying a
1-18     teacher the minimum monthly salary under Section 21.402.
1-19           (d)  The commissioner may adopt rules as necessary for the
1-20     implementation of this section.  The commissioner shall solicit
1-21     gifts, grants, and donations for the purposes of this section.
1-22           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with the 1999-2000
1-23     school year.
1-24           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-1     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-2     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-3     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-4     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 2-5     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 2-6     passage, and it is so enacted.