Honorable Joe Straus, Speaker of the House, House of Representatives
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB4064 by Bohac (Relating to staff development and continuing education requirements for public school educators regarding digital education methods.), As Passed 2nd House
Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for HB4064, As Passed 2nd House: a negative impact of ($831,314) through the biennium ending August 31, 2019.
The bill would take effect only if a specific appropriation for the implementation of the bill is provided in a General Appropriations Act of the Eighty-fifth Legislature.
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
($415,657)
2019
($415,657)
2020
$0
2021
$0
2022
$0
Fiscal Year
Probable Savings/(Cost) from General Revenue Fund 1
2018
($415,657)
2019
($415,657)
2020
$0
2021
$0
2022
$0
Fiscal Analysis
The bill would add digital learning training requirements for candidates in educator preparation programs and would add digital learning and teaching to the list of continuing education options for teachers.
The bill would require SBEC rules on field supervision for classroom teacher candidates to allow at least three of the required visits to be through video, the internet, or another remote technological method, and limit the number of field supervisor support visits for classroom teacher candidates during the course of an internship to five. The bill would require those audio or video recordings of support visits to be confidential and would not require a school district employee to obtain parental consent for such a video prior to the required support visit.
The bill amends the roles and responsibilities of local school board trustees and requires the creation of a data website for trustee review of campus and district academic achievement data during the local decision making processes.
The bill would take effect September 1, 2017, or immediately if passed with the necessary voting margins, and would apply beginning with school year 2017-18.
Methodology
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) indicates the Information and Technology Services division would need to develop and implement changes to the Educator Certification Online System (ECOS) to allow for tracking of observations by video or in person as required under the provisions of the bill. Based on information provided by TEA, the cost associated with making the required changes to ECOS would total $315,560 in fiscal year 2018 and $315,560 in fiscal year 2019 for the initial development.
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) indicates the Information and Technology Services division would need to develop and implement changes to the studentGPS Dashboard TSDS component to allow school board members to review secure data. Based on information provided by TEA, the cost associated with making the required changes would total $100,097 in fiscal year 2018 and $100,097 in fiscal year 2019 for the initial development.
This estimate assumes the agency can use existing full-time equivalent positions to provide ongoing support and maintenance.
Technology
The Texas Education Agency estimates initial development costs associated with developing a report that will compare video or in person observations to accountability ratings and a secure website for local board member review of campus and district academic achievement data.
Local Government Impact
Local governments that are approved Education Preparation Programs (EPPs) currently include school districts, charter schools, county districts, education service centers, community colleges, and public universities. Private universities and businesses are also approved EPPs.
According to TEA, EPPs could incur costs associated with using technology-based supervisor visits. Costs to EPP could include selecting, testing, and resolving any issues with video and audio equipment; testing and resolving any issues with network access to viewing platform; testing and resolving any network abilities to handle video; developing policies and security measures to protect the privacy of students and teacher candidates; developing step-by-step procedures for setup, filming, uploading, and sharing observations; training teacher candidates and field supervisors; and providing ongoing technical support. Costs would vary depending on the EPP.
Unless an EPP already has a digital literacy evaluation and curriculum system and/or appropriate staff, an EPP would need to purchase or develop a digital literacy evaluation, a digital literacy curriculum, and/or secure appropriate staff necessary to develop and/or teach the curriculum.
According to TEA, there are currently a number of digital technology evaluation and curriculum systems available for purchase. These range in cost from a $99 annual subscription to a $480 classroom technology specialist certification per teacher candidate. The average number of initial teacher certificates issued over the past five years is 25,756. The estimated annual cost for all EPPs statewide to purchase digital technology evaluation and curriculum systems could range from $2.5 million ($99 x 27,256) to $12.4 million ($480 x 25,756). These costs would be lower to the extent EPPs have already acquired such systems.
According to information provided by TEA, the estimated cost to hire one staff member to develop and teach a digital technology evaluation and curriculum system at the 133 entities approved to offer educator preparation for certificates that require a bachelor's degree at the average weighted salary for all faculty in fiscal year 2015 for Texas public universities ($61,216) would be $8.1 million (133 x $61,216).
These estimates could be lower or higher depending on the number of EPPs that need to purchase a digital technology evaluation and curriculum system, the cost of the selected digital technology evaluation and curriculum system or develop a system, and/or the number of EPPs that develop their own system.
Source Agencies:
701 Texas Education Agency, 710 Texas A&M University System Administrative and General Offices, 720 The University of Texas System Administration, 758 Texas State University System, 768 Texas Tech University System Administration, 781 Higher Education Coordinating Board, 783 University of Houston System Administration