Bill: HB 1892, 84(R) - 2015
Committee
House Public Education
Vote Recommendation
| Vote Recommendation |
Economic Freedom |
Property Rights |
Personal Responsibility |
Limited Government |
Individual Liberty |
| No |
Neutral |
Neutral |
Neutral |
Negative |
Neutral |
Author(s)
Eddie Rodriguez
Bill Caption
Relating to the establishment of a community school grant program.
Fiscal Notes
State
Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds
for HB1892, Committee Report 1st House, Substituted: a negative impact
of ($7,230,065) through the biennium ending August 31, 2017.
Local Government
School districts could incur additional costs to transition to a community school, but these costs would be voluntary.
Bill Analysis
HB 1892 would require the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to establish a
competitive grant program to assist public schools in developing Texas
community school plans (CSPs) and transitioning to Texas community
schools (TCS). The bill would require TEA to award two-year grants to eligible schools
from appropriated funds, including an annual $60,000 to pay the salary
and benefits of a full-time community school coordinator and $25,000 to
develop and implement a CSP.
Vote Recommendation Notes
This bill abridges the principle of limited government. While community schools plans may help failing schools, there should not be a new grant program created that is funded by by the state, which spends additional taxpayer money. Rather than trying to tinker around the edges of failing public schools in order to try and fix them, the state should instead enact school choice legislation to allow parents to send their children to quality schools regardless of the zipcode of their residence. This would spur a renaissance of public school quality as government schools would be forced to compete with the private sector for students. We oppose HB 1892.
