By Lucio                                              S.B. No. 1808
         76R1294 CAS-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to personal finance education as a requirement for
 1-3     graduation from public high school.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 28.002(d), Education Code, is amended to
 1-6     read as follows:
 1-7           (d)  The State Board of Education, after consulting with
 1-8     educators, parents, business and industry representatives, and
 1-9     employers, shall by rule identify the essential knowledge and
1-10     skills of each subject of the enrichment curriculum that all
1-11     students should be able to demonstrate. Each district shall use the
1-12     essential knowledge and skills identified by the board as
1-13     guidelines in providing instruction in the  enrichment curriculum.
1-14     The board shall include elements relating to personal finance as
1-15     part of the essential knowledge and skill of economics and require
1-16     personal finance education as a condition for  high school
1-17     graduation.  As a condition for accreditation, the board shall
1-18     require each district to provide instruction in personal finance at
1-19     one or more appropriate high school grade levels specified by board
1-20     rule.
1-21           SECTION 2.  The State Board of Education shall adopt rules
1-22     relating to personal finance education in accordance with Section
1-23     28.002(d), Education Code, as amended by this Act, not later than
1-24     March 1, 2000.  The rules shall require each school district, as a
 2-1     condition for accreditation, to provide instruction in personal
 2-2     finance beginning with the 2000-2001 school year.  In addition, the
 2-3     rules shall provide a transition period for requiring personal
 2-4     finance education as a condition for high school graduation in a
 2-5     manner that does not work an undue hardship on students who are in
 2-6     the junior or senior year of high school during the 2000-2001
 2-7     school year.
 2-8           SECTION 3.  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.