NOTE: As provided in LFC policy, this report is intended for use by the standing finance committees of the legislature.  The Legislative Finance Committee does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of the information in this report when used in any other situation.

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(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Duplicates/Conflicts with/Companion to/Relates to HB155 & SB158

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

State Department of Public Education (SDE)

Commission on Higher Education (CHE)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 520 amends the Public School Finance Act that pertains to the calculation of the training and experience index to include professional development credits verified by SDE. This bill will also require that credit hours earned after the completion of a bachelor's degree and prior to the completion of a master's degree that are not included in the master's degree granting requirements shall be counted when an academic classification in excess of the master's degree classification is determined. House Bill 520 removes the section that established a training and experience index for newly created school districts. The bill adds a new section that specifies the type and number of professional development hours that would be included in the calculation and requires each school district to have a professional development plan that meets State Board of Education criteria.

Significant Issues

According to SDE, allowing both professional development hours and "additional" hours earned between academic degrees has the potential to raise the training and experience indices of all 89 school districts. Since there is a one-year lag between calculation of the training and experience index and its use as a multiplier in the program cost computation, districts would have to cover the increased salary expenses without benefit of the higher index, which will not generate additional units until the following year.

House Bill 520 would authorize SDE to approve credits for sixteen contact hours of instruction for each credit hour. The Commission on Higher Education has adopted rules defining the conditions for awarding higher education credits. The rule states that a "higher education credit generally requires 45 hours of student work for one credit, usually divided into 15 hours of "contact" time and 30 hours in outside work. Thus, a university credit requires at least one week of full-time effort by the student. Such rules are common throughout higher education. If the CHE requires 45 hours of effort to earn a credit, and this proposal would only require 16 contact hours of instruction for each credit hour, teachers may avoid university courses altogether.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The effective date of the provisions of the act is July 1, 2001, thus the first indices calculated accordingly would be determined in October 2001. The first school year in which the higher indices would be used to determine the State Equalization Guarantee distribution would be 2002-2003. SDE indicates that it is difficult to estimate the additional costs since the exact effect on the training and experience index is not known. However, certain assumptions could be made in order to estimate the potential costs associated with passage of this bill. Assuming that 25 percent of the instructional personnel placed on the 89 individual district training and experience matrices and having between 3 and 17 years experience could move one training category. The result would be an additional 5,823 units. Multiplying 5,823 units by the 1998-99 unit value of $2,344.09 would result in an increase in program cost of $13.6 million in 2002-2003.

This bill may have a negative impact on higher education institutions throughout the state if it becomes financially beneficial for teachers to avoid university courses if teachers can obtain credits more quickly through SDE approved providers.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

The State Department of Public Education would be responsible for audit and verification of the professional development courses and credit hours. The potential number of hours to be verified for all 89 school districts could be significant and the administrative impact on the department could be quite large.

SDE also indicates that school districts would be hard pressed to identify and verify professional hours as far back as July 2, 1995.

CONFLICT/DUPLICATION/COMPANIONSHIP/RELATIONSHIP

House Bill 520 relates to HB155 and SB158. Both bills would include National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certification among the categories of additional program units allowed toward the total program unit calculation.

CTF/njw