BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Research Center S.B. 1809
AUTHOR'S/SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
The Texas Tech-Prep Program was enacted in 1999 to allow high school students to begin a college technical major while still attending high school. Texas' Tech-Prep law emphasizes the important role played by Texas' business community, in partnership with secondary and post-secondary educational leaders, and provides for cost-effective statewide administration of the federally funded program through a statewide network of regional consortia. Current Texas law does not adequately define the regional role played by tech-prep consortia.
As proposed, S.B. 1809 clarifies the original intent of current state law regarding operation of tech-prep in Texas through regional consortia. It also provides that funding through the federal Perkins Act, as revised, for tech-prep activities will continue flowing through the consortia.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Section 61.853, Education Code, by amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (a-1), as follows:
(a) Provides that tech-prep in Texas is conducted through the 26 regional tech-prep consortia participating in tech-prep as of January 1, 2005. Provides that each tech-prep consortium serves the region served by the consortium as of that date, except that territory is authorized to be moved from one region to another with the consent of the affected tech-prep consortia and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB).
(a-1) Redesignates existing text of Subsection (a).
SECTION 2. Amends Section 61.854(a), Education Code, to require THECB, in each fiscal year, as the agent of the Texas Education Agency, to allot the federal tech prep implementation money this state receives and any additional state or federal money received, designated, or appropriated to support implementation of articulated secondary-postsecondary programs, enhanced secondary-postsecondary collaboration, model sequences of courses linked to tech-prep programs, or secondary-postsecondary career pathway partnerships to the regional tech-prep consortia for regional administration according to regionally developed plans designed to meet federal, state, and regional goals.
SECTION 3. Effective date: September 1, 2005.