HBA-JRA S.B. 1784 76(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisS.B. 1784
By: Gallegos
Public Education
5/12/1999
Engrossed



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Long the world's leader in producing high school graduates, the United
States has relinquished that position to 11 other industrialized countries,
according to a new study from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development. While U.S. students are staying in school longer than before,
other countries have made even greater strides.  

In 1990, the average number of years a five-year-old American was expected
to attend school or college was 16.3, a figure which by 1996 had risen to
16.8 years, but by 1996, 11 other countries, including Canada, Spain and
Finland, had surpassed that number.  While college enrollment in the U.S.
remained relatively stable between 1990 and 1996, it increased by more than
25 percent in 16 OECD countries.  

The United States has one of the highest university dropout rates in the
industrialized world -- 37 percent.  
Among the 29 member nations of the OECD, the U.S. high school graduation
rate, at 72 percent, is next to last, surpassing only Mexico. The study
also reported Americans are among the industrialized world's least literate
populations. Yet U.S. spending per pupil is among the highest in the group
at all levels of education.  

S.B. 1784 requires a school district, when utilizing a community-based
dropout recovery education program, to develop goals, objectives, and
guidelines that best address the needs of students at risk of dropping out
of school 

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 29.081(e), Education Code, as follows:

(e) Requires a school district, when utilizing a community-based dropout
recovery education program, to develop goals, objectives, and guidelines
that best address the needs of students at risk of dropping out of school.
Requires these guidelines to include, but not be limited to: 

_grading students' work,
_offering course credit,
_curriculum development and implementation,
_modifying instructional time requirements,
_performance standards,
_staff and faculty qualifications,
_class size,
_student-faculty ratios, and
_methods of evaluating subject mastery.

Provides that the guidelines may, but are not required to, comply with all
requirements of this  code.  Deletes text requiring the program to attain
certain objectives, which are incorporated into the guidelines of the
proposed text.  

SECTION 2.  Effective date:  September 1, 1999.

SECTION 3.  Emergency clause.