LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
FISCAL NOTE, 76th Regular Session
March 8, 1999
TO: Honorable Paul Sadler, Chair, House Committee on Public
Education
FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE: HB1850 by Lengefeld (Relating to eligibility for certain
programs or services provided by the Windham School
District), As Introduced
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* Estimated Two-Year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for *
* HB1850, As Introduced: negative impact of $(11,600,000) through *
* the biennium ending August 31, 2001. *
* *
* The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal *
* basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions of *
* the bill. *
**************************************************************************
General Revenue-Related Funds, Five-Year Impact:
****************************************************
* Fiscal Year Probable Net Positive/(Negative) *
* Impact to General Revenue Related *
* Funds *
* 2000 $(5,800,000) *
* 2001 (5,800,000) *
* 2002 (5,800,000) *
* 2003 (5,800,000) *
* 2004 (5,800,000) *
****************************************************
All Funds, Five-Year Impact:
*****************************************************
* Fiscal Year Probable Savings/(Cost) from *
* Foundation School Fund *
* 0193 *
* 2000 $(5,800,000) *
* 2001 (5,800,000) *
* 2002 (5,800,000) *
* 2003 (5,800,000) *
* 2004 (5,800,000) *
*****************************************************
Fiscal Analysis
This bill would expand eligibility for services provided by the Windham
School District (Windham) using funds appropriated from the foundation
school fund to any person confined or imprisoned in the Department of
Criminal Justice; regardless of whether the inmate were a high school
graduate or not . Currently, only inmates who are not high school
graduates or who have a graduate equivalency diploma (GED) are eligible
for such services, which are subject to inmate reimbursement..
Those inmates who have GED's or are high school graduates can receive
post-secondary educational (including vocational) services through a
separate program administered by the Department of Criminal Justice
(TDCJ). Upon parole, inmates must reimburse TDCJ for such services.
Windham earns state funds on a contact-hour basis, but receives a
sum-certain appropriation from the Foundation School Fund.
Methodology
This analysis identifies potential state cost from providing services to
additional inmates. It is difficult to estimate the number of newly
eligible inmates who would seek service. Furthermore, Windham does not
have a statutory obligation to serve all eligible inmates. The actual
fiscal implication of this legislation could be substantially less or
more than what herein is estimated.
Data provided by Windham indicates that about 39,210 inmates have a high
school diploma, GED, or some college credit. During fiscal year 1998, a
total of 14,565 or about 15.7% of inmates without a high school education
were served in vocational education programs. The 14,565 inmates
generated a total of 4,761,209 vocational program contact-hours for
funding purposes for school year 1997-1998, which represents about 327
vocational contact- hours per inmate receiving vocational education
services.
For the purpose of this fiscal note, it is assumed that a comparable
percentage of the 39,210 inmates with a high school diploma or
equivalent would seek vocational education services. Based on this
assumption, up to 6,156 additional inmates could be served in vocational
programs. At the current contact-hour rate, and at the current average
number of contact hours per inmate, the additional 6,156 inmates could
generate 2,013,012 new vocational program contact hours generating an
additional allocation of $5.8 million earned by Windham.
Local Government Impact
No fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.
Source Agencies:
LBB Staff: JK, CT, UP