Honorable Dan Patrick, Lieutenant Governor, Senate Honorable Dade Phelan, Speaker of the House, House of Representatives
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB2030 by Turner, Chris (relating to certain grant programs, scholarships, and initiatives administered by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.), Conference Committee Report
The fiscal implications of the bill cannot be determined at this time due to the unavailability of data related to the number of postsecondary education collaboratives and students that would participate in the program and the number of institutions that would participate in the Texas brain university research initiative and the grant amount that would be awarded through the program.
The Higher Education Coordinating Board would only be required to implement the regional postsecondary education collaborates grant program if federal funding is provided to the Board for that purpose as part of the federal coronavirus disease (COVID-19) relief spending appropriated on or after January 1, 2021.
The bill would require the Higher Education Coordinating Board to establish and administer a competitive grant program under which the Board would award grants to eligible regional postsecondary education collaboratives to improve postsecondary educational outcomes for low-income students in the state. The bill would define regional postsecondary education collaboratives as partnerships or other collaborations between stakeholders in education that is focused on improving postsecondary educational outcomes in a region of the state. Under provisions of the bill, to be eligible to receive a grant, a regional postsecondary education collaborative would be required to meet certain criteria, including raising a minimum amount of funding from other sources for the collaborative's costs.
The Higher Education Coordinating Board is unable to estimate the amount needed to fund the grants. The agency does not know how many regional postsecondary education collaboratives would apply for and be found eligible to participate in the program, how much each collaborative would raise from other sources, and how many students would enroll in higher education with the collaborative's assistance. As a result, the fiscal implication of this bill cannot be determined.
The bill would also create the Texas Brain University Research Initiative that would be administered by the Higher Education Coordinating Board. The bill would create the Texas brain university research initiative fund that is a dedicated account in the General Revenue fund. The fund includes appropriations, gifts, grants and other donations. The Higher Education Coordinating Board would award matching grants to eligible institutions to recruit distinguished researchers from the fund.
The fiscal implications of the initiative cannot be determined at this time due to the unavailability of data related to the number of institutions that would participate in the program and the grant amount that would be awarded through the program.
Local Government Impact
No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.