HBA-MPM H.B. 2553 76(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 2553
By: Hochberg
Public Education
4/9/1999
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

The comptroller of public accounts (comptroller) has performed 30
performance reviews of Texas school districts since 1991.  These reviews
provide the districts money-saving suggestions in order to direct more
money to the classroom.  An interim study by the House Committee on Public
Education found the reviews to be one way to improve district efficiency.
H.B. 2553 authorizes districts to request reviews of their districts and
authorizes the comptroller to require a district to pay 25 percent of the
cost of the review.   

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1.  Amends Section 403.020, Government Code, as follows:

Sec. 403.020.  New title:  PERFORMANCE REVIEW OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS.  (a)
Authorizes the comptroller of public accounts (comptroller) or the request
of a majority of the members of the board of trustees (board) of the
district to initiate a review of the effectiveness and efficiency of the
budgets and operations of school districts. 

(b)  Requires a district reviewed under this section to pay 25 percent of
the cost incurred in conducting a performance review, if one is initiated
at the request of a majority of the board of that district. 

(c)  Requires the comptroller to prepare a report showing the results of
each review conducted under this section; make the entire report and a
summary of it publicly available on the Internet; and file it with the
following entities and persons: 

_the district, 
_the governor, 
_the speaker of the house of representatives, 
_the chairs of the standing committees of the senate and house of
representatives with jurisdiction over public education, and  
_the commissioner of education.

SECTION 2.  Effective date:  September 1, 1999.

SECTION 3.  Emergency clause.