BILL ANALYSIS
By: Harper-Brown
Committee Report (Unamended)
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Under the current system of public education, low-income and at-risk inner city children are strictly ascribed to their assigned public school by policy, economics, or both. Parents of meager financial means do not have the ability to access the wide array of educational options that are available to families with money – whether it is access to a better public school or to a non-governmental school.
This bill provides “the equity of access” to all educational options that exist in a community for the benefit of a child and without regard to a family’s personal worth.
HB 1263 creates a pilot program that levels the playing field for children who would not otherwise be able to access a better education and in doing so, re-engages and empowers parents. Parental involvement is shown to be the single largest determining factor in a child’s academic success. By choosing what school is best for their child, parental pressure is placed on improving the system of public education.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Texas Education Agency in SECTION 1 and the Commissioner of Education in SECTION 1 of this bill.
ANALYSIS
HB 1263 creates an urban school choice pilot program and sets forth specific definitions. An eligible child has the option to attend any public school in the district the child resides, attend a public school in another district or receive a scholarship to pay the costs of attending a qualifying school. Specific guidelines are set forth as to what constitutes an eligible district. A child is eligible to participate in the program if the child resides in an eligible district and has dropped out of school, resides in an eligible district, attended a public school for the majority of the preceding semester or is starting school for the first time and satisfies the criteria as set forth in this bill. A school district is to provide written notice of the program to a parent of the student who is eligible to participate in the program as designated. A child who establishes eligibility may continue participation in the program until the earlier of the date the child graduates from high school or the child's 21st birthday. A child is not ineligible if the child no longer resides in an eligible district.
A child attending a qualifying school is entitled to receive an annual scholarship in an amount equal to the lesser of 90 percent of the statewide average annual cost per pupil for the preceding
school year or the qualifying school's average actual annual cost per student. If a child is eligible to participate in special education, bilingual education or a special language program and receives those services at the qualifying school, the amount of the child's scholarship includes an amount equal to the amount of funding the school district in which the child resides would be entitled for the child and may exceed the maximum scholarship amount as provided. On application of by the parent of an eligible child, the agency is to provide the child's application to a school of choice resource center as selected by the agency. The school of choice resource center is to determine if the child is eligible to participate in the program and if so the agency will issue a scholarship certificate to the parent. If a school of choice resource center is not available then the agency shall determine a child's eligibility. Funds will be distributed directly to the qualifying school and the child's scholarship is the entitlement of the child. The agency is required to adopt rules regarding the calculation and distribution of payments for qualifying schools and for the application and approval procedures in the program.
A qualifying school must be accredited or have filed an application for accreditation and cannot advocate or foster unlawful behavior. A qualifying school may not discriminate on the basis of the child's race, ethnicity or national origin and must follow designated federal mandates. A qualifying school with more scholarship applicants than available positions must fill the scholarship positions by a random selection process but may give preference to scholarship applicants as specifically designated.
Each qualifying school must administer the appropriate assessment tests or nationally norm-referenced assessment test annually and provide the results.
A qualifying school involved with this scholarship program is not an agent of the state or federal government.
Except as specifically provided, the annual new student enrollment in the program is limited to 5% of the students in the district as of October 1 of the preceding year. The commissioner shall adopt rules as necessary to implement, administer and enforce the program. TEA must respond to and investigate any complaint or dispute arising from this program. TEA is to select one or more independent and privately funded nonprofit organizations to establish and operate schools of choice resource centers in each eligible district.
The agency is to contract with more than one researcher to conduct a study and evaluate the school choice pilot program and expires on June 1, 2014.
TEA shall make the urban school choice pilot program, as added by this Act, available for participation beginning with the 2005 - 2006 academic school year.
EFFECTIVE DATE
This Act takes effect immediately if it receives a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this Act takes effect September 1, 2005.