LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                              Austin, Texas
                                     
                    FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session
  
                              March 30, 2001
  
  
          TO:  Honorable Paul Sadler, Chair, House Committee on Public
               Education
  
        FROM:  John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
  
       IN RE:  HB1783  by Garcia (Relating to dropout and completion
               rates in public schools.), As Introduced
  
**************************************************************************
*  Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for    *
*  HB1783, As Introduced:  negative impact of $(234,412) 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                           $(132,206)  *
          *       2003                            (102,206)  *
          *       2004                            (102,206)  *
          *       2005                            (102,206)  *
          *       2006                            (102,206)  *
          ****************************************************
  
All Funds, Five-Year Impact:
  
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*Fiscal    Probable Savings/(Cost) from     Change in Number of State     *
* Year         General Revenue Fund           Employees from FY 2001      *
*                      0001                                               *
*  2002                        $(132,206)                             2.0 *
*  2003                         (102,206)                             2.0 *
*  2004                         (102,206)                             2.0 *
*  2005                         (102,206)                             2.0 *
*  2006                         (102,206)                             2.0 *
***************************************************************************
  
Fiscal Analysis
  
The bill requires the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to do two activities
that have fiscal implications:  (1) Develop a training program for
auditing district dropout records and make the program available to
public accountants throughout the state; (2) Review each district's
annual audit report and notify the board of trustees of any objections
or violations of accounting procedures, state law or rules.
  
  
Methodology
  
TEA estimates that its audit division would need two full-time employees
to implement this bill, at a total salary of $70,320 per year, plus
$19,886 per year in benefit costs.  The responsibilities of this staff
include developing the standards for auditing dropout records and
conducting a one week training course for public accountants.  For this
course there would be an estimated one-time cost of $30,000 in 2002.

The agency anticipates that the two full-time employees will need to
conduct audits on unusual campus dropout reports or districts with
special circumstances.  The agency estimates that it would take the two
employees two months at the cost of $150 per day per person for travel,
for a total of $12,000 annually.
  
  
Local Government Impact
  
Districts would be required to pay for the annual audit of the dropout
records.  It is assumed that each audit would average around $1,000 for
the approximately 2,550 middle and high school campuses for a state-wide
cost of $2,550,000.
  
  
Source Agencies:   701   Texas Education Agency
LBB Staff:         JK, CT, PF, JM