Honorable Dan Huberty, Chair, House Committee on Public Education
FROM:
John McGeady, Assistant Director Sarah Keyton, Assistant Director Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB3009 by Talarico (Relating to civics instruction in public schools.), As Introduced
Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for HB3009, As Introduced: a negative impact of ($333,308) through the biennium ending August 31, 2021.
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
2020
($113,813)
2021
($219,495)
2022
($49,107)
2023
($49,107)
2024
($49,107)
Fiscal Year
Probable Savings/(Cost) from General Revenue Fund 1
Change in Number of State Employees from FY 2019
2020
($113,813)
0.5
2021
($219,495)
0.5
2022
($49,107)
0.5
2023
($49,107)
0.5
2024
($49,107)
0.5
Fiscal Analysis
This bill would require the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to advise school districts on training materials and resources to assist educators in civics course training. The bill would also require the State Board of Education (SBOE) to develop curriculum to include civics instruction at least once in grades 4-8 and an elective one-credit civics high school course. Additionally, the SBOE would be required to add civics as an option for students to satisfy the third social studies graduation credit.
Methodology
TEA estimates the costs associated with the development of TEKS for civics in grades 4-8 would include convening a work group of educators to make recommendations to the SBOE. It is anticipated that TEA would need to convene a committee of approximately 18 individuals to attend three three-day face-to-face meetings. The cost to convene committees is an estimated $53,910 in fiscal year 2020.
TEA estimates the costs associated with collecting reports from school districts and charter schools, reviewing the information, and conducting research to determine any correlation to be approximately $150,000 for the agency to contract with an external entity to substantiate any relationship found between taking the civics course and student achievement. This analysis assumes that rules adopted by the Agency would only necessitate a single study in school year 2021. This analysis estimates the additional of a .5 FTE Program Specialist VI at the Agency to coordinate the collection of the reports.
TEA estimates the requirement of a civics elective to be offered at the high school level will result in a new course being developed, necessitating IT system updates. The cost estimate to implement the requirements in the TSDS PEIMS system are $6,796 in school year 2020 and $20,388 in school year 2021.
Technology
TEA estimates the requirement of a civics elective to be offered at the high school level will result in a new course being developed, necessitating IT system updates. The cost estimate to implement the requirements in the TSDS PEIMS system are $6,796 in school year 2020 and $20,388 in school year 2021.
Local Government Impact
There would be costs for schools and districts and a need for allocation of resources to train all social studies teachers in the new civics' curriculum, develop project-based courses based on the new curriculum, to grade the civics projects, and to collect and submit data to TEA.