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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Garcia, M.J.

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/24/06

HB

SHORT TITLE Middle School International Film Program

SB 70

ANALYST Aguilar

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

$400.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Duplicates House Bill 57.

Relates to an appropriation contained in House Bill 3.

ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL OPERATING BUDGET IMPACT (dollars in thousands)

FY06 FY07

FY08 3 Year

Total Cost

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

Total

$5.7

$5.7

$11.4 Recurring General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Public Education Department (PED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 70 appropriates $400 thousand from the general fund to the Public Education De-

partment to contract for a program to develop and implement an interdisciplinary international

education curriculum using international films for middle school students statewide.

Senate Bill 70 – Page 2

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The department notes that managing the contract will require some human resource support and

estimates this additional support at $5.7 thousand.

The appropriation of $400 thousand contained in the bill is a recurring expense to the general

fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2007 shall

revert to the general fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

The Public Education Department reports Global Awareness is a key component of 21

st

century

learning, as defined by the Partnership for 21

st

Century Skills. Global awareness promotes un-

derstanding, tolerance and acceptance of ethnic, cultural, religious and personal differences as

they play out in communities and workplaces. It also helps people work through the complexi-

ties of different points of view that spring from different parts of the world.

These observations underscore both the importance of international education and the need for

access to high-quality, standards-based interdisciplinary curriculum which are not currently

available. Film provides a promising medium for developing the required understandings. Re-

search in both educational theory and cognitive psychology tells us that visual learning is among

the very best methods for teaching students of all ages how to think and how to learn. Visual

learning techniques - graphical ways of working with ideas and presenting information - teach

students to clarify their thinking, and to process, organize and prioritize new information.

PA/mt:yr