BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 1727

By: West

Public Education

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

According to the February 2009 Education Commission of the States report, The Progress of Education Reform—Funding Dual Credit Programs, more than 87 percent of America's public high schools offer their students the opportunity to gain college credit before graduation.  Learning opportunities that allow students to gain college-level credit often are referred to as 'dual credit' programs, and the report notes that such programs are experiencing a growth in both the number of students who take advantage of them and the number of schools that offer them.  One reason cited for the growth in dual credit programs is that they are seen as a way to ease the transition from high school to postsecondary education or the workforce.

Texas high schools are following this national trend and increasingly are offering dual credit courses to high school students. However, there needs to be a mutually beneficial and supportive partnership between the Texas Education Agency and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which needs to include rules that outline each agency's specific functions in relation to dual credit programs and related reporting requirements.

S.B. 1727 amends current law relating to rules adopted and reporting required under the school district college credit program.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the commissioner of education and to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in SECTION 1 of this bill.

ANALYSIS

S.B. 1727 amends the Education Code to authorize the commissioner of education to adopt rules as necessary concerning a school district's duties under the college credit program and to authorize the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to adopt rules as necessary concerning the duties of a public institution of higher education under that program.

S.B. 1727 requires each school district to report annually to the Texas Education Agency the courses in which participating district students have earned high school credit under the program and removes provisions requiring each district to report the cumulative number of courses in which participating district students have enrolled, college credit hours such students have earned, and the number of district students in the program who have earned college credit. The bill makes these reporting provisions effective September 1, 2009.

S.B. 1727 requires the commissioner and the coordinating board to share data as necessary to enable school districts to comply with the program's reporting requirements. The bill requires the coordinating board to collect student course credit data from public institutions of higher education as necessary for the program's reporting requirements. The bill makes these provisions effective September 1, 2011.

EFFECTIVE DATE

Except as otherwise provided, on passage, or, if the act does not receive the necessary vote, the act takes effect September 1, 2009.