HBA-MSH H.B. 1330 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1330 By: Zbranek Public Education 4/12/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The Public Access Initiative created by the commissioner of education was designed to provide public education stakeholders with access to timely information for educational planning and decision-making. The projects is funded in part by the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (TIF) and supplemented with Texas Education Agency (TEA) dollars. In recent years, regional Education Service Centers (ESCs) have become Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in order to offer Internet access to school districts. The results of the project have been successful, but have created an after the fact problem. Internet access provided by ESCs is often open to the general public and materials that do not relate to educational purposes are also accessed using the Internet service provided by the center. Independent ISPs are concerned that using TIF or TEA subsidies to create a publically supported business constitutes unfair competition against private ISPs. House Bill 1330 requires centers that provide Internet service to verify that users are students, teachers, or school personnel and ensure that only material with a legitimate educational purpose is accessed through the center's Internet service. 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. ANALYSIS House Bill 1330 amends the Education Code to require a regional education service center (center) that provides Internet service to public schools to verify that each person using the Internet service is a public school student, teacher, or employee. The bill requires the center to ensure that the Internet service cannot be used to gain access to materials that do not have a legitimate educational purpose, including pornography. The bill also requires the center to restrict a person using the Internet service to not more than 35 hours of use each week. EFFECTIVE DATE On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2001.