LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session
April 25, 2001
TO: Honorable Paul Sadler, Chair, House Committee on Public
Education
FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE: HB970 by Oliveira (Relating to compensatory, intensive,
and accelerated education in public schools. ), Committee
Report 1st House, Substituted
**************************************************************************
* Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for *
* HB970, Committee Report 1st House, Substituted: negative impact *
* of $(500,000) through the biennium ending August 31, 2003. *
* *
* 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 *
* 2002 $(500,000) *
* 2003 0 *
* 2004 0 *
* 2005 0 *
* 2006 0 *
****************************************************
All Funds, Five-Year Impact:
*****************************************************
* Fiscal Year Probable Savings/(Cost) from *
* General Revenue Fund *
* 0001 *
* 2002 $(500,000) *
* 2003 0 *
* 2004 0 *
* 2005 0 *
* 2006 0 *
*****************************************************
Fiscal Analysis
The bill makes a number of changes to the Texas Education Code, regarding
the compensatory education program and agency reporting requirements.
The bill also requires the Commissioner of Education to form a committee
that would study effective compensatory education and effective higher
education development programs. The bill specifies the committee
membership and directs studies be undertaken with funds specifically
appropriated.
The bill adds language to the statutory description of the compensatory
education program to express the goal of student performance that is to
be met by the program. It restates the objective of the program,
focusing on reducing disparity in student performance and high school
completion rates for those students at risk of dropping out of school.
It makes several amendments to the definition of an at risk student,
including that a student may be identified in the basis of local
criteria.
This legislation would take effect immediately. Changes to the academic
excellence indicators and the district annual performance report take
effect for the 2003-04 school year. Most other provisions would
generally apply to the 2001-02 school year.
Methodology
Most sections of this bill have no significant direct fiscal impact on
the agency or school districts.
The bill does require that the agency's current biennial report, become
an annual report. While it adds several analyses of data to the required
information, most of these data are already analyzed in a similar
manner, and current agency staffing would generally absorb the effort
needed to compile the analyses into an annual report.
The bill (Section 12) requires an evaluation of effectiveness of certain
programs. Because the programs offered in public school settings are
significantly different from those offered at the higher education
level, this requirement really involves two distinct studies. Because
of the one-time nature of this provision, TEA estimates that the most
economical method of handling the study requirement is to contract for
the evaluation. The expected cost of such contracts is estimated to be
at least $250,000 each.
Local Government Impact
School districts in general may be required to redirect compensatory
education funds to target the defined population in the legislation.
Source Agencies: 701 Texas Education Agency
LBB Staff: JK, CT, UP