Honorable Larry Taylor, Chair, Senate Committee on Education
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB1122 by Huffines (Relating to abolishing certain county boards of education, boards of county school trustees, and offices of county school superintendent.), As Introduced
No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
The bill would require each county board of education, board of county school trustees, or office of county school superintendent in a county with a population of 2.2 million or more and that is adjacent to a county with a population of more than 600,000 to be abolished effective September 1, 2018. The bill would provide for the process by which each applicable entity should be dissolved.
Based on information provided by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) the provisions of this bill would apply to county education departments for Dallas County and Harris County.
TEA anticipates that any cost to the state associated with implementing the provisions of the bill would be minimal.
Local Government Impact
TEA indicates that there would be an impact to the districts that use the services of the county education departments. According to TEA, the two county education departments that would be affected by the bill provide services such as transporting students and assisting in the education of special education students. Under the provisions of the bill local school districts would need to begin to provide these services instead.
TEA indicates that any state aid that was previously distributed to the county education departments for their services would presumably be retained by the local school districts, therefore the net fiscal impact to local governments should be minimal.