LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
 
FISCAL NOTE, 81ST LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION
 
April 14, 2009

TO:
Honorable Rob Eissler, Chair, House Committee on Public Education
 
FROM:
John S. O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
 
IN RE:
HB3740 by Hochberg (Relating to a statewide education data management system.), As Introduced



Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for HB3740, As Introduced: a negative impact of ($30,482,485) through the biennium ending August 31, 2011.

The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions of the bill.



Fiscal Year Probable Net Positive/(Negative) Impact to General Revenue Related Funds
2010 ($10,330,768)
2011 ($20,151,717)
2012 ($19,454,868)
2013 ($19,425,320)
2014 ($17,555,176)




Fiscal Year Probable Savings/(Cost) from
General Revenue Fund
1
Change in Number of State Employees from FY 2009
2010 ($10,330,768) 25.0
2011 ($20,151,717) 38.0
2012 ($19,454,868) 38.0
2013 ($19,425,320) 38.0
2014 ($17,555,176) 38.0

Fiscal Analysis

The bill would require the Commissioner of Education and the Commissioner of Higher Education to appoint an education data governance board comprising representatives of the Texas Education Agency (TEA), the Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), and various stakeholder groups.

The bill would require TEA to establish a Public School Student Information Management System (SIMS) to support local operations and state reporting.  The bill would require TEA and THECB to establish an operational data store (ODS) to maintain student, human resource, and financial data for school districts, charter schools, other public schools, and institutions of higher education. The bill would require TEA and THECB to extract data from SIMS and maintain it in the operational data store. The bill would prohibit TEA and THECB from using data in the operational data store without consent from the entities from which the data are derived.

The bill would require TEA and THECB to extract data from the operational data store and maintain it in an aggregated data warehouse (the warehouse).  The bill would direct TEA and THECB to make data in the warehouse available to Education Research Centers and would require that data in the warehouse be available for download on the Internet at the state, district, and campus level.

The bill would permit the Commissioners to solicit and accept gifts, grants, and federal funds for purposes of funding the provisions of the bill.

The bill would require the above-mentioned statewide data systems to be implemented by September 1, 2015. 


Methodology

For purposes of this estimate, it is assumed that the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) would continue to operate parallel to the systems established by the bill until after FY2014.

TEA estimates that establishing the Public School Student Information Management System (SIMS) would require 7.0 FTEs at a cost of $0.7 million in each fiscal year, inclusive of salary, benefits, and other operating expenses.  TEA estimates that establishing the SIMS would require the services of 6.0 contractors in FY2010 at a cost of $1.2 million, 16.0 contractors in FY2011 and FY2012 at an annual cost of $3.0 million, and 17.0 contractors in FY2013 and FY2014 at an annual cost of $3.1 million.  TEA estimates hardware costs at $1.0 million in FY2011, $0.8 million in each subsequent year.  Hardware service charges are estimated at $0.4 million annually beginning in FY2012.  TEA estimates software license costs of $1.7 million in FY2011, $0.6 million in FY2012, $1.3 million in FY2013, and $1.0 million in FY2014.  Software maintenance is estimated at $0.3 million in FY2012, increasing to $0.5 million by FY2014.

TEA estimates that establishing the operational data store (ODS) would require 8.0 FTEs at a cost of $0.8 million in FY2010 and 12.0 FTES in each subsequent fiscal year at a cost of $1.2 million in FY2011 and $1.1 million in each subsequent fiscal year, inclusive of salary, benefits, and other operating expenses.  TEA estimates that establishing the ODS  would require the services of 3.0 contractors in FY2010 at a cost of $0.6 million and 10.0 contractors in each subsequent fiscal year at an annual cost of $1.9 million.  TEA estimates hardware costs at $0.1 million in FY2010, $0.3 million in FY2011, $0.4 million in FY2012, and $0.7 million per year in FY2013 and FY2014.  Hardware service charges are estimated at $49,000 in FY2011, $0.1 million in FY2012 and FY2013, and $0.2 million in FY2014.  TEA estimates software license costs of $0.2 million in FY2010, $0.4 million in FY2011, $0.2 million in FY2012, and $0.5 million in FY2013.  Software maintenance is estimated at $34,000 in FY2011, increasing to $0.1 million by FY2014.

TEA estimates that establishing a data extraction portal as part of the functionality of the ODS and the Aggregated Data Warehouse would require 2.0 FTEs at a cost of $0.2 million annually beginning in FY2010, inclusive of salary, benefits, and other operating expenses.  TEA estimates that establishing the portal would require the services of 7.0 contractors in FY2010 at a cost of $1.3 million and 2.0 contractors in FY2011 at a cost of $0.3 million.  TEA estimates hardware costs at $0.2  million in FY2010 and $0.8 million in FY2011.  Hardware service charges are estimated at $27,000 in FY2011 and $0.3 million in each subsequent fiscal year.  TEA estimates software license costs of $0.2 million in FY2010, $0.7 million in FY2011, $0.6 million in FY2012, and $0.3 million in FY2013 and FY2014.  Software maintenance is estimated at $34,000 in FY2011, increasing to $0.5 million by FY2014.

TEA estimates that establishing a data collection system as part of the functionality of the ODS and the Aggregated Data Warehouse would require 4.0 FTEs at a cost of $0.4 million annually beginning in FY2010, inclusive of salary, benefits, and other operating expenses.  TEA estimates that establishing the data collection system  would require the services of 19.0 contractors in FY2010 at a cost of $3.7 million, 10.0 contractors in FY2011 at a cost of $1.8 million, and 5.0 contractors in each subsequent fiscal year at a cost of $1.0 million.  TEA estimates hardware costs at $1.1 million in FY2011.  Hardware service charges are estimated at $0.2 million annually beginning in FY2012.  TEA estimates software license costs of $0.2 million in FY2010, $1.0 million in FY2011, and $2.2 million in FY2012.  Software maintenance is estimated at $37,000 in FY2011, increasing to $0.4 million by FY2014. TEA estimates that training related to the data collection system provided to Regional Education Service Centers, school districts, and charter schools at a cost of $0.8 million in FY2012, $1.0 million in FY2013, and $0.2 million in FY2014.

TEA estimates that the provision of business intelligence and reporting would require 9.0 FTEs beginning in FY2011 at a cost of $0.9 million in each fiscal year.  TEA estimates that the provision of business intelligence and reporting would require the services of 7.0 contractors in FY2011 at a cost of  $1.3 million and 8.0 contractors in each subsequent fiscal year at a cost of $1.4 million.

TEA estimates that the addition of the technical FTEs and contractors referenced above would require 4.0 support staff FTEs at a cost of $0.3 million annually, and 2.0 full-time contracted support staff at a cost of $0.1 million annually beginning in FY2010, increasing to 5.0 contracted support staff in FY2011 at a cost of $0.3 million, and 4.0 contracted support staff in each subsequent fiscal year at an annual cost of $0.3 million. Contractor costs are inclusive of professional fees, rent, and other operating expenses such as equipment and supplies.


Technology

Public School Student Information Management System technology costs are estimated at $1.0 million in FY 2010, increasing to $5.6 million in FY 2014. Technology costs associated with establishing the operational data store are estimated at $0.9 million in FY 2010, increasing to $2.6 million in FY 2014. Technology costs associated with establishing a data extraction portal are estimated at $1.6 million in FY 2010 and $1.1 million in FY 2014. Technology costs associated with establishing a data collection system would be an estimated $3.5 million in FY 2010 and $1.4 million in FY 2014. The technology costs associated with providing business intelligence services are estimated at $1.8 million in FY 2011 and $2.4 million in FY 2014.
 
Technology costs are inclusive of technical contractor professional fees, equipment, hardware service charges, software licenses, and software maintenance fees.

Local Government Impact

School districts may be required to make significant changes to the way their data are extracted and reported to the TEA.
 
School districts would be required to ensure that data extracted from the district's existing student information systems, financial systems, and staff data systems would be compatible with requirements of the new system and could incur significant local costs.
 
School districts would be required to support interfaces between their local financial systems and staff systems and the operational data store. They would also be required to support interfaces between any local student information management systems and the operational data store. This would require effort both on the part of the educational entities and the agencies to collaborate on automated data extraction and transmission capabilities for each educational entity.  
 
School districts would require training to learn how to use business intelligence tools to best take advantage of the operational data store and the aggregated data warehouse.


Source Agencies:
701 Central Education Agency, 781 Higher Education Coordinating Board
LBB Staff:
JOB, JSp, JGM, JSc