| TO: | Honorable Dan Branch, Chair, House Committee on Higher Education |
| FROM: | Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB2103 by Villarreal (Relating to education research centers and data sharing among cooperating state agencies.), As Introduced |
Under provisions of the bill, the Texas Education Agency, the Higher Education Coordinating Board (board) and the Texas Workforce Commission would execute agreements for the sharing of data for the purposes of facilitating education and workforce studies at education research centers. The board would be required to maintain the data contributed by the cooperating agencies in a repository known as the "P-20/Workforce Data Repository" which will be located at and operated by the board.
The bill requires the board to establish at least one but not more than three education research centers. The commissioner of higher education would chair and maintain an advisory board for the purpose of reviewing study proposals and appropriate data use. Each study conducted at a center must be approved by the advisory board. Under provisions of the bill, the cooperating agencies may use funds appropriated to the agency and available for the purpose of establishing the centers. After a center is established, the center would be supported by gifts or grants or by charges imposed by the center. For purposes of this fiscal note it assumed any costs associated with the bill will be supported by charges imposed by the centers.
| Source Agencies: | 701 Central Education Agency, 781 Higher Education Coordinating Board
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| LBB Staff: | UP, KK, SK, GO
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