LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session
Revision 1
March 29, 2001
TO: Honorable Teel Bivins, Chair, Senate Committee on
Education
FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE: SB526 by Armbrister (Relating to the age at which a
child may be admitted to public school.), As Introduced
**************************************************************************
* Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for *
* SB526, As Introduced: positive impact of $394,000,000 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 $197,000,000 *
* 2003 197,000,000 *
* 2004 197,000,000 *
* 2005 197,000,000 *
* 2006 197,000,000 *
****************************************************
All Funds, Five-Year Impact:
*****************************************************
* Fiscal Year Probable Savings/(Cost) from *
* Foundation School Fund *
* 0193 *
* 2002 $197,000,000 *
* 2003 197,000,000 *
* 2004 197,000,000 *
* 2005 197,000,000 *
* 2006 197,000,000 *
*****************************************************
Fiscal Analysis
The bill changes the eligibility requirements for kindergarten to include
children who are five years old as of May 31st of the preceding school
year. Also, eligibility for admission and funding would be amended to
reflect the May 31st date. Students that reach age 5 between June 1st and
August 31st would no longer be eligible for funding under the Foundation
School Program, unless enrolled in a pre-kindergarten program.
According to the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), there are children who
could be affected by this bill, specifically, children of working poor
families who receive "At Risk" child care subsidized primarily by federal
funds. TWC estimates an additional 6,250 children, who would otherwise
enter the public school system, would instead continue to be eligible
for this subsidized child care.
Currently, there is significant shortage of subsidized "At Risk" child
care, because federal funding is limited to an annual block grant.
Because of this shortage, the children who continue to receive child
care as a result of this bill would displace those children who would
otherwise be served by the "At Risk" program. Under this scenario,
there would not be an additional cost to the state for "At Risk" child
care services as a result of this legislation. If the state chose to
provide additional funding to serve these 6,250 children, the TWC
estimates an annual cost of $21.9 million.
Methodology
Language in the bill is not explicit whether a child enrolled in
pre-kindergarten but who would not by 5 years old by May 31 would be
allowed to enroll in kindergarten. This fiscal note assumes such
students would be allowed to enroll in kindergarten in 2001-02. The
result of this assumption is that 41,000 would be expected to delay
kindergarten entry until 2002-03 due to the change to the May 31 date,
resulting in a reduction in state aid of $197 million per year. (If one
assumed these students could not enroll in kindergarten but were
permitted to repeat the half-day pre-kindergarten, the savings would be
$276 million per year.)
Local Government Impact
The bill results in the loss of $197 million in state aid annually to
local districts. The delay of kindergarten entry for about 41,000
students would create a one-time reduced-size cohort that would
eventually work its way out of the system with the graduation of the
group in fiscal year 2014. The reduction in state aid accompanying this
reduced-size cohort would also continue through fiscal year 2014.
The effects of the reduced-size cohort would vary greatly from district
to district depending on local enrollment growth trends, campus
configurations, and staffing patterns. The reduced enrollment assumed
in this fiscal note could result in a temporary reduction of 355
kindergarten sections, resulting in savings of about $14 million.
Because the reduced need for kindergarten teachers would be temporary,
it is not clear that districts would in reality be able to reduce the
number of sections offered.
Source Agencies: 701 Texas Education Agency, 320 Texas Workforce
Commission
LBB Staff: JK, CT, PF, RN