LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session
April 3, 2001
TO: Honorable Teel Bivins, Chair, Senate Committee on
Education
FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE: SB1327 by Bivins (Relating to improvement of the
mathematics skills of public school students.), Committee
Report 1st House, Substituted
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* Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for *
* SB1327, Committee Report 1st House, Substituted: negative impact *
* of $(33,996,639) 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. *
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General Revenue-Related Funds, Five-Year Impact:
****************************************************
* Fiscal Year Probable Net Positive/(Negative) *
* Impact to General Revenue Related *
* Funds *
* 2002 $(17,339,351) *
* 2003 (16,657,288) *
* 2004 (7,806,755) *
* 2005 (7,751,657) *
* 2006 (10,206,652) *
****************************************************
All Funds, Five-Year Impact:
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*Fiscal Probable Probable Change in Number of *
* Year Savings/(Cost) from Savings/(Cost) from State Employees from *
* General Revenue Fund Certification and FY 2001 *
* 0001 Assessment Fees *
* (General Revenue *
* Fund) *
* 0751 *
* 2002 $(17,339,351) $0 6.5 *
* 2003 (16,657,288) 0 6.5 *
* 2004 (7,884,650) 77,895 2.5 *
* 2005 (7,839,659) 88,002 2.5 *
* 2006 (10,294,654) 88,002 2.5 *
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Fiscal Analysis
The bill has a number of requirements with fiscal implications:
(1.) The State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) would be required
to establish a master mathematics teacher certificate and develop a
related course of study. This is estimated to cost $478,589 and one
full-time employee (FTE) over a two year period.
(2.) The Texas Education Agency (TEA) would be required to establish the
master mathematics teacher grant program, providing $5,000 stipends to
qualified teachers, starting in the 2003-04 school year. This is
estimated to cost $2,175,000 in 2004, and increasing by $2,455,000 each
year thereafter, as well as .5 FTE's per year.
(3.) TEA would be required to develop professional development
institutes for mathematics teachers and to develop training materials.
This is estimated to cost $13,735,275 in the first two years, with costs
decreasing substantially each year thereafter, as well as two FTE's per
year.
(4.) TEA would be required to award grants for the conduction of
research on mathematics skills acquisition and program effectiveness.
This is estimated to cost approximately $1,750,000 over a three year
period.
(5.) TEA would be required to develop and make available to school
districts assessment instruments that can be used to diagnose student
mathematics skills. This is estimated to cost $3,600,000 and three FTE's
over a two-year period.
Methodology
This estimate is based upon information provided by TEA and SBEC.
The master mathematics teacher certification exam is estimated to have a
contracted cost $363,000 and require one additional employee with salary
costs of $115,589 over a two-year period to oversee the development of
the exam and the course of instruction. The number of teachers earning
certificates for the 2004 grant cycle is assumed to be 435, which is
based on the actual number of teachers earning master reading teacher
certificates in 2001. The number of new teachers earning certificates
for each year thereafter is assumed to increase by 491 for each year
thereafter, until 2008 when the cumulative number of teachers eligible
for a master mathematics teacher grant stabilizes at the TEA's estimate
of 2,400.
The estimated cost of the master mathematics teacher grant program is
based on $5,000 stipends for 435 teachers (actual master reading teacher
total) for a total of $2,175,000 in fiscal year 2004. It is assumed that
grant-receiving teachers will remain eligible for the stipend in future
years. It is assumed that an additional 491 teachers will be certified
to receive the stipend in fiscal year 2005 and each fiscal year
thereafter, increasing the grant cost by $2,455,000 per year. It is
assumed that the total number of certified teachers will stabilize at
2,400 in fiscal year 2008.
The professional development institutes are estimated to serve about
28,741 teachers of mathematics. It is assumed that half the teachers
(14,370) would be trained in each of 2002 and 2003 at a cost of $600 each
for stipends, and that each of the 360 training sessions would cost
$10,000 to provide. Initial course material and development costs are
estimated at $1,500,000, for a total cost of $13,735,275 for each of the
first two years. These costs would decrease to $5,000,000 in 2004, and
$3,000,000 in 2005 and 2006.
It is estimated that activities already budgeted in the provision of
professional development institutes would satisfy the requirement to
award grants to institutions for the development and identification of
research on mathematics skill acquisition; thus there would be no cost.
The grant awards for monitoring the effectiveness of the institutes are
estimated to cost $500,000 in 2003 and 2004. The grant awards for
identifying best practices in math instruction are estimated to cost
$175,000 in 2002 and 2003. The grant awards for developing research on
cognitive development concerning math skills are estimated to cost
$300,000 in 2002 and $100,000 in 2003.
The cost of diagnostic instruments is an estimated contracted cost of
$150,000 per grade per year, for an annual total of $1,800,000, and
three additional FTE's for a two-year development period. These costs
and the additional personnel would not be needed after fiscal year 2003.
Local Government Impact
No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is
anticipated.
School districts must pay stipends to qualified master mathematics
teachers beginning in 2002-03, as well as report to TEA information on
these teachers. These requirements should have minimal fiscal impact to
school districts.
Source Agencies: 701 Texas Education Agency, 705 State Board for
Educator Certification
LBB Staff: JK, CT, JM