Honorable Dan Huberty, Chair, House Committee on Public Education
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB546 by Deshotel (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 HB546, As Introduced: a positive impact of $2,912,006 through the biennium ending August 31, 2019.
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
2018
$1,443,439
2019
$1,468,567
2020
$1,468,567
2021
$1,468,567
2022
$1,468,567
Fiscal Year
Probable Savings/(Cost) from General Revenue Fund 1
Probable Savings/(Cost) from Federal Education Fund 148
2018
$1,443,439
$35,937
2019
$1,468,567
$36,148
2020
$1,468,567
$36,148
2021
$1,468,567
$36,148
2022
$1,468,567
$36,148
Fiscal Analysis
The bill would amend Education Code to 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 amend Education Code, Section 39.02301 to remove the pilot component of the Writing Assessment Study.
The bill would take effect September 1, 2017, or immediately if passed with the necessary voting margins, and apply beginning in school year 2017-18.
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 $1.4 million annually based on the costs of the current state assessment contract.
Based on information provided by TEA, the grade eight social studies assessment and United States History end-of-course assessment (EOC) are not required by federal law and thus would be eliminated. According to TEA, the estimated savings of eliminating the grade eight social studies assessment would be approximately $370,000 per fiscal year. The estimated savings of eliminating the U.S. History EOC would be approximately $1.1 million per fiscal year. TEA estimates there would also be a reduction of approximately $36,000 each fiscal year in Federal Funds associated with eliminating the assessments under the provisions of the bill.
Local Government Impact
School districts and charters would experience varying savings from administering a reduced number of assessments and testing days. Districts and charters may incur some costs associated with calendar changes that would be required if testing days need to be removed from district calendars; however, these costs are not expected to be significant.