Honorable J. M. Lozano, Chair, House Committee on Higher Education
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB2937 by Canales (Relating to the establishment of a pilot program under which a licensed hospital may offer dual credit courses to public high school students.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
Under the provisions of the bill, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) would be required to develop and implement the medical dual credit program, through which a hospital meeting certain qualifications, selected by TEA, could offer dual credit courses to high school students under a partnership with a school district. TEA would also be required to track the contact hours attributable to student enrollment in the program and allocate funding to the partnering hospital based on these credits in an amount equivalent to funding for contact hours as received by a public junior college. Students participating in the medical dual credit program could not be charged more for a course than the average amount charged for similar courses in the same region, if applicable.
According to TEA, there would be costs associated with these activities, including for staff and necessary technology updates. Provisions of the bill requiring TEA to provide funding for each contact hour generated would also result in a cost.
For the purposes of this analysis, it is assumed the costs associated with the bill would not be significant and could be absorbed within existing resources.
Local Government Impact
According to TEA, the impact to school districts could be significant, as they would have to track medical dual credit program enrollment and attendance separately and report it to TEA separately in order for funding to be disbursed accurately. Costs to school districts would also depend on whether the districts choose to offset any tuition and fee costs rather than pass those costs onto students. TEA also assumes that participating school districts would be required to provide supervisory staff and transportation to and from the hospital.
Source Agencies:
320 Texas Workforce Commission, 701 Texas Education Agency, 710 Texas A&M University System Administrative and General Offices, 720 The University of Texas System Administration, 768 Texas Tech University System Administration, 769 University of North Texas System Administration, 781 Higher Education Coordinating Board