By: Grusendorf H.B. No. 3012
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to public education investment capital fund
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 7.024, Education Code, is amended by
amending subsections (b), (c), (d), and (e) to read as follows:
(b) The commissioner may make grants from the fund to
eligible schools or clusters of eligible schools organizing
collaboratively inside a school district and/or under a district
charter.
(c) Schools or clusters of schools are eligible to apply for
a grant if the school has demonstrated a commitment to campus
deregulation and to restructuring educational practices and
conditions at the school by entering into a partnership with:
(1) school staff;
(2) parents of students at the school;
(3) community and business leaders;
(4) school district officers;
(5) a nonprofit, community-based organization that
has demonstrated capacity to train, develop, and organize parents
and community leaders into a large, nonpartisan constituency that
will hold the school and the school district accountable for
achieving high academic standards; and
(6) the agency.
(d) A grant from the fund shall be made directly to the
school or to the campus so designated in a cluster's application and
may be used for the training and development of school staff,
parents, and community leaders in order that they understand and
implement the high academic standards and practices necessary for
high academic achievement, appropriate strategies to deregulate
and restructure the school or cluster of schools in order to improve
student achievement, and effective strategies to organize parents
and community leaders into a large, nonpartisan constituency that
will hold the school and the school district accountable for
achieving high academic standards. The grant may be used to
implement strategies developed by the partners that are designed to
enrich or extend student learning experiences outside of the
regular school day.
(e) The commissioner may make a grant of up to $55,000 each
academic year to an eligible school or may make a larger grant to a
cluster of eligible schools organizing collaboratively inside a
school district and/or under a district charter which does not
exceed $50,000 per campus. Campus administration personnel of a
school that receives a grant under this section are accountable to
the commissioner of education and must demonstrate:
(1) the responsible use of the grant to achieve campus
deregulation and restructuring to improve academic performance;
(2) a comprehensive plan to engage in ongoing
development and training of teachers, parents, and community
leaders to:
(A) understand academic standards;
(B) develop effective strategies to improve
academic performance; and
(C) organize a large constituency of parents and
community leaders to hold the school and school district
accountable to achieve high academic standards;
(3) ongoing progress in achieving higher academic
performance; and
(4) ongoing progress in identifying, training, and
organizing parents and community leaders who are holding the school
and the school district accountable for achieving high academic
standards.