Honorable Larry Taylor, Chair, Senate Committee on Education
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB1302 by Menéndez (Relating to limiting certain state-required assessment instruments administered to public school students in certain grades to assessments required by federal law.), As Introduced
Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for SB1302, As Introduced: a positive impact of $18,300,000 through the biennium ending August 31, 2017.
Fiscal Year
Probable Net Positive/(Negative) Impact to General Revenue Related Funds
2016
$9,150,000
2017
$9,150,000
2018
$9,150,000
2019
$9,150,000
2020
$9,150,000
Fiscal Year
Probable Savings/(Cost) from General Revenue Fund 1
2016
$9,150,000
2017
$9,150,000
2018
$9,150,000
2019
$9,150,000
2020
$9,150,000
Fiscal Analysis
The bill would require the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to develop appropriate assessment instruments only for subjects and grades for which an assessment is required by federal law.
The bill would take effect September 1, 2015, or immediately if passed with the necessary voting margins, and apply beginning in school year 2015-16.
Methodology
Developing assessment instruments only for subjects and grades for which an assessment is required by federal law would reduce the number of assessments and result in savings of approximately $9.2 million annually, based on the costs of the current state assessment contract which expires August 31, 2015.
Based on information provided by TEA, the grade 4 and 7 writing assessment and grade 8 social studies assessment are not required by federal law and would be eliminated. According to TEA, 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 would be $1.25 million per fiscal year.
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.