Honorable Jimmie Don Aycock, Chair, House Committee on Public Education
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB742 by Huberty (Relating to eliminating certain state-required assessment instruments and certain end-of-course assessment instruments administered to public school students in certain grades.), As Introduced
Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for HB742, As Introduced: a positive impact of $20,800,000 through the biennium ending August 31, 2017.
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
2016
$10,400,000
2017
$10,400,000
2018
$10,400,000
2019
$10,400,000
2020
$10,400,000
Fiscal Year
Probable Savings/(Cost) from General Revenue Fund 1
2016
$10,400,000
2017
$10,400,000
2018
$10,400,000
2019
$10,400,000
2020
$10,400,000
Fiscal Analysis
The bill would eliminate the writing assessment instruments in grades four and seven, the social studies assessment instrument in grade eight, and the United States history end-of-course (EOC) assessment.
The bill would take effect September 1, 2015, or immediately if passed with the necessary voting margins, and would apply beginning in school year 2015-16.
Methodology
The bill would reduce the number of assessments in grades four, seven, and eight and the United States History EOC.
Reducing the number of assessments would result in savings of $10.4 million annually, based on the costs of the current state assessment contract which expires August 31, 2015.
Based on information provided by the Texas Education Agency, the estimated savings of eliminating the writing assessments would be $4.2 million per fiscal year for grade 4 and $3.7 million per fiscal year for the grade 7. The estimated savings of eliminating the grade eight social studies assessment and United States history EOC would be $1.25 million per fiscal year, per assessment.
This analysis assumes savings based on the per assessment costs of the current state assessment contract. To the extent that assessment costs change with a new contract, savings may vary.
Local Government Impact
School districts would experience varying savings from administering a reduced number of assessments.