BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 291

By: Jackson, Jim

Public Education

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Parental and community support for a new open-enrollment charter school is demonstrated by a distributed petition or a public hearing.  A charter revision request in which a charter school's location is moved is not required to have such a petition or hearing.  H.B. 291 seeks to remedy this situation by requiring, among other provisions, a public hearing in the new geographical area where a new charter school or campus plans to operate.

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

H.B. 291 amends the Education Code to require the board of trustees of a school district or the governing body of a home-rule school district, in order to determine parental and community support for a charter for an open-enrollment charter school, to hold a public hearing in the geographical area described in the charter application form, rather than authorizing the board or governing body to hold a similar hearing optionally.

H.B. 291 requires the Texas Education Agency to hold a public hearing in the geographical area in which a charter holder proposes to operate an open-enrollment charter school before the commissioner of education may approve a charter revision request filed wholly or partly to request approval to move the location of the charter school out of the geographical area described in the school's charter or to add an additional school campus at a location that is not within the geographical area described in the school's charter.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2011.