BILL ANALYSIS
By: Callegari
Committee Report (Substituted)
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Many unfunded or partially-funded mandates have been placed on school districts, increasing the costs of school operations. These mandates often force school districts to hire additional administrative personnel and increases districts' costs while eclipsing local control of their operations. This bill repeals several mandates affecting districts while modifying others to give districts greater flexibility.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.
ANALYSIS
The bill amends the Education Code to require that the commissioner of education adopt policies that reduce by ten percent the total amount of written paperwork, reports, and other information that a school district is required to prepare and submit to the Texas Education Agency during the 2006-2007 school year. The policies must be implemented by the 2008-2009 school year. The bill also amends the Education Code to make the requirement that a school district establish a local school health advisory council permissive, and makes conforming changes. The bill continues to amend the Education Code by no longer requiring school districts to disseminate information regarding bacterial meningitis.
Lastly, the bill amends the Local Government Code to exempt school districts from the requirement that local governmental entities post vendor information on their Internet websites.
EFFECTIVE DATE
September 1, 2007.
COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE
The committee substitute expands the bill's caption to, "relating to paperwork requirements and unfunded mandates imposed on school districts; whereas the original bill caption states, "relating to unfunded mandates imposed on school districts.
The committee substitute adds language to that of the original bill, requiring the commissioner of education adopt policies that reduce the total amount of written reports that a school district must submit to the Texas Education Agency by ten percent.
The original bill amends the Education Code requiring that school districts transfer students' immunization records to other schools and report student immunizations to the state; whereas, the substitute does not.
Lastly, the original bill amends the Government Code, requiring that school districts pay the Teacher Retirement System contribution on salary that exceeds the state minimum salary multiplied by the cost of education index; whereas the substitute does not.