| TO: | Honorable Florence Shapiro, Chair, Senate Committee on Education |
| FROM: | John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | SB1557 by Carona (Relating to the Texas High Performance Schools Consortium.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted |
The bill would create the Texas High Performance Schools Consortium to advise state leadership on best practices for improving student learning through the development of learning standards and assessment and accountability systems.
School districts and charter schools could apply to the Commissioner of Education to participate, and up to 20 school districts and one open-enrollment charter could be selected. The application would include a detailed plan for assessments and accountability.
The bill would allow the Commissioner to charge a fee to participating school districts and charter schools to fund administrative costs of the Consortium. It is assumed for the purposes of this fiscal note that the Commissioner would not require such a fee as it would discourage participation in the consortium. The bill would require the Commissioner to provide performance and progress reports to the Governor and legislature not later than December 1, 2012 and December 1, 2014.
The Texas Education Agency is expected to incur some costs related to the consortium, but these costs are not estimated to be significant.
| Source Agencies: | 701 Central Education Agency
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| LBB Staff: | JOB, LXH, JGM, JSc
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