HBA-LJP H.B. 1998 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1998 By: Delisi Higher Education 3/5/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Under current law, to be eligible for a Teach for Texas grant, a student must be receiving a Toward Excellence, Access, and Success (TEXAS) grant. Because TEXAS grants are based on financial need, the Teach for Texas grant may not be as effective as it could be in alleviating Texas' teacher shortage. House Bill 1998 restructures the Teach for Texas grant program and separates it from the TEXAS grant program. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that rulemaking authority is expressly delegated to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in SECTION 6 of this bill. ANALYSIS House Bill 1998 amends the Education Code to require the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) to implement modifications to the Teach for Texas tuition grant program (program) as soon as practicable after the effective date of this bill, but not later than the 2002-2003 academic year (SECTION 6). The bill repeals certain provisions relating to the requirements of a person to be eligible for a Teach for Texas grant (grant), including the requirement that the person be a recipient of a Toward Excellence, Access, and Success (TEXAS) grant. The bill provides that to be eligible for a grant a person must: _be seeking an educator certification; _be enrolled as a junior or senior in a baccalaureate degree program or be enrolled in the first semester of the educator certification program after receiving a baccalaureate degree; and _agree to teach full time for one year for each semester or summer term for which the person receives the grant. The bill requires THECB, when awarding grants, to give priority to a person seeking certification in a teaching field or agreeing to teach in a community that is certified by the commissioner of education as experiencing a shortage of teachers. After awarding the grants based on teacher shortages, the bill provides that THECB give priority in awarding grants to persons demonstrating financial need to the extent that money for grants is available. The bill provides that if the money available for grants is insufficient to provide grants to all teacher shortage priority applicants, the bill requires THECB to award grants to those applicants according to financial need. The bill also sets forth provisions to calculate the amount of a grant for a semester or term and provides that a person is prohibited from receiving a grant for more than three academic years or the equivalent (Secs. 56.353 and 56.354). The bill provides that a person who receives one or more grants must begin to fulfill the teaching obligation not later than the 18th month after the completion of the educator certification program for which the person received the grants. The bill also provides that if a person who receives a grant fails to remain enrolled in or to make steady progress in the educator certification program without good cause or fails to become certified as a teacher not later than the 18th month after the completion of the educator certification program, then the grant automatically becomes a loan (Secs. 56.356 and 56.357). The bill requires THECB to establish and implement the Teach for Texas alternative educator certification program (alternative program) to award stipends to assist persons seeking an educator certification and to adopt initial rules for awarding the stipends as soon as practicable (Sec. 56.357 and SECTION 6). The bill sets forth provisions relating to the eligibility requirements and considerations in selecting applicants for the alternative program. The bill provides that the amount of a stipend under the alternative program is an amount set by THECB that is not to exceed $5,000 or a different amount set by legislative appropriation. The bill sets forth provisions relating to a promissory note for a stipend, the repayment of a stipend of a person who fails to fulfill the teaching obligation, and under what conditions a stipend automatically becomes a loan. The bill also sets forth provisions relating to the alternative program's time period of the teaching obligation and the cancellation of the teaching obligation (Sec. 56.357). If THECB allocates grants or money available for those grants to a particular eligible institution in a fiscal or academic year, then the bill requires THECB to make grants or money not awarded to such eligible institution available in the same fiscal or academic period to eligible applicants at other eligible institutions (Sec. 56.358). EFFECTIVE DATE On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2001.