Honorable Dan Huberty, Chair, House Committee on Public Education
FROM:
John McGeady, Assistant Director Sarah Keyton, Assistant Director Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB1026 by Bohac (Relating to instruction in positive character traits in public schools.), As Introduced
Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for HB1026, As Introduced: a negative impact of ($490,912) 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
($247,456)
2021
($243,456)
2022
($243,456)
2023
($243,456)
2024
($243,456)
Fiscal Year
Probable Savings/(Cost) from General Revenue Fund 1
Change in Number of State Employees from FY 2019
2020
($247,456)
0.5
2021
($243,456)
0.5
2022
($243,456)
0.5
2023
($243,456)
0.5
2024
($243,456)
0.5
Fiscal Analysis
The bill would require the State Board of Education (SBOE) to integrate positive character traits into the Texas essential knowledge and skills adopted for kindergarten through grade 12. Each school district and open-enrollment charter school would be required to adopt a character education program that includes the required positive character traits and to annually submit the adopted programs to the agency. The agency would be required to annually designate Character Plus Schools and add to the criteria for such a designation the correlation between the character education program adopted by a school, an increase in student attendance levels and a decrease in student disciplinary problems. TEA would be required to use the services of a center for education research to make designations.
Methodology
This analysis estimates the need for a .5 FTE Program Specialist V to work with the SBOE to integrate required character traits into the TEKS and create the required report. The position would also coordinate the annual collection of adopted programs from school districts and open-enrollment charter schools. Salary, benefits and start up costs would be $47,456 in Fiscal Year 2020 and $43,456 in subsequent years.
The agency estimates the annual cost for an education research center to complete a study correlating character education programs with student attendance and discipline data to be $200,000.
Technology
No technology impact is anticipated.
Local Government Impact
Local school districts and charter schools could see increased costs associated with curriculum and lesson plan development and submission of their character education programs to TEA. School districts and charter schools could also see increased costs associated with professional development and training. According to information provided by TEA, total local costs statewide are estimated to be $24.8 million in the first year of the biennium and $4.4 million in the second year of the biennium.