BILL ANALYSIS |
C.S.H.B. 4140 |
By: Bohac |
Public Education |
Committee Report (Substituted) |
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Interested parties note certain concerns regarding public education technology spending. C.S.H.B. 4140 seeks to address these concerns by ensuring that public school districts maintain the flexibility to purchase instructional materials that best serve the needs of their students and empowering districts to consider strategically how to use technology to support teaching and learning.
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CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.
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RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.
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ANALYSIS
C.S.H.B. 4140 amends the Education Code to rename the instructional materials allotment as the instructional materials and technology allotment, to rename the state instructional materials fund as the state instructional materials and technology fund, and to change as a purpose for which money in the fund is required to be used the payment of expenses associated with the purchase or licensing of open-source instructional material to the payment of such expenses concerning open education resource instructional material.
C.S.H.B. 4140 removes the definition of "open-source instructional material" as it relates to statutory provisions relating to instructional materials, transfers the applicability of provisions relating to open-source instructional material to open education resource instructional material, and defines "open education resource instructional material" as teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that allows for free use, reuse, modification, and sharing with others, including full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.
C.S.H.B. 4140 requires a public school district or open-enrollment charter school, in selecting instructional materials each year, to consider the use of open education resource instructional materials and to certify to the State Board of Education (SBOE) that the district considered the selection of open education resource instructional materials. The bill changes the instructional materials account the commissioner is required to maintain for each school district to the instructional materials and technology account and requires the commissioner's rules related to that account to include a requirement that a district certify that the use of open education resource instructional material was considered, as required by the bill.
C.S.H.B. 4140 requires the SBOE, in reviewing and adopting instructional materials for elementary and secondary grade levels for each subject in the required curriculum, to consider a district's need for technology as well as instructional materials and authorizes the SBOE in any biennium to limit the adoption of instructional materials to provide sufficient resources to purchase technology resources, including digital curriculum. The bill requires the SBOE to include information regarding open education resource instructional materials during the adoption cycle, including any cost savings associated with the adoption of open education resource instructional materials.
C.S.H.B. 4140 changes the frequency at which the SBOE is required to update the long-range technology-related plan from an update as necessary to an update at least every five years.
C.S.H.B. 4140 amends the Government Code to make a conforming change.
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EFFECTIVE DATE
On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2017.
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COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.H.B. 4140 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following comparison is organized and formatted in a manner that indicates the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.
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