LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD

Austin, Texas

FISCAL NOTE, 83RD LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION

March 9, 2013

TO:	Honorable John Davis, Chair, House Committee On Economic & Small Business Development
FROM:	Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	HB842 by Bell (Relating to requiring public school districts to provide certain opportunities to career and technical students under the college credit program.), As Introduced

No fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.

The bill would require school districts to implement a college credit program that allows a career and technical education (CTE) student the opportunity to earn the credit necessary to obtain an industry-recognized credential or an associate degree concurrently with the student's high school diploma.

Local Government Impact

Currently, college credit program provisions require each school district to make a program available for students to earn the equivalent of at least 12 semester credit hours of college credit in high school. The bill would require school districts to provide CTE students the opportunity to earn the credit needed to obtain an industry-recognized credential or an associate degree. An associate degree requires 60 semester hours of college credit, or 48 hours in addition to the 12 required under current law. School districts that do not currently have a CTE program that meets the bill's requirements would incur administrative costs.

There would likely be additional costs for school districts to pay tuition for students participating in additional dual credit courses if there was a cost associated with those courses. There could be costs for districts associated with any required equipment related to teaching new CTE courses. There could also be costs associated with hiring additional teachers to teach CTE courses that are not currently being taught.

Source Agencies:

701 Central Education Agency, 781 Higher Education Coordinating Board

LBB Staff:

UP, RB, JSc, JBi