83R10642 MEW-D
By: Farney H.B. No. 2662
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to requiring a personal financial literacy credit for
graduation under the recommended and advanced high school programs.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 28.002(a), Education Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(a) Each school district that offers kindergarten through
grade 12 shall offer, as a required curriculum:
(1) a foundation curriculum that includes:
(A) English language arts;
(B) mathematics;
(C) science; and
(D) social studies, consisting of Texas, United
States, and world history, government, economics, with emphasis on
the free enterprise system and its benefits, [and] geography, and
personal financial literacy; and
(2) an enrichment curriculum that includes:
(A) to the extent possible, languages other than
English;
(B) health, with emphasis on the importance of
proper nutrition and exercise;
(C) physical education;
(D) fine arts;
(E) career and technology education;
(F) technology applications; and
(G) religious literature, including the Hebrew
Scriptures (Old Testament) and New Testament, and its impact on
history and literature.
SECTION 2. Section 28.0021(b), Education Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(b) Each school district and each open-enrollment charter
school that offers a high school program shall provide to a student
instruction in personal financial literacy in any course meeting
the requirements for a social studies [an economics] credit under
Section 28.025, using materials approved by the State Board of
Education. The instruction in personal financial literacy must
include instruction on completing the application for federal
student aid provided by the United States Department of
Education. In fulfilling the requirement to provide financial
literacy instruction under this section, a school district or
open-enrollment charter school may use an existing state, federal,
private, or nonprofit program that provides students without charge
the instruction described under this section. [Each district and
each open-enrollment charter school that offers a high school
program shall ensure that a district or charter school student
enrolled at an institution of higher education in a dual credit
course meeting the requirements for an economics credit under
Section 28.025 receives the instruction described under this
subsection.]
SECTION 3. Section 28.025(b-1), Education Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(b-1) The State Board of Education by rule shall require
that:
(1) except as provided by Subsection (b-2), the
curriculum requirements for the recommended and advanced high
school programs under Subsection (a) include a requirement that
students successfully complete:
(A) four credits in each subject of the
foundation curriculum under Section 28.002(a)(1), including at
least one-half credit in government, [and] at least one-half credit
in economics, and at least one-half credit in personal financial
literacy under Section 28.0021, to meet the social studies
requirement;
(B) for the recommended high school program, two
credits in the same language in a language other than English under
Section 28.002(a)(2)(A) and, for the advanced high school program,
three credits in the same language in a language other than English
under Section 28.002(a)(2)(A); and
(C) for the recommended high school program, six
elective credits and, for the advanced high school program, five
elective credits;
(2) one or more credits offered in the required
curriculum for the recommended and advanced high school programs
include a research writing component; and
(3) the curriculum requirements for the minimum,
recommended, and advanced high school programs under Subsection (a)
include a requirement that students successfully complete:
(A) one credit in fine arts under Section
28.002(a)(2)(D); and
(B) except as provided by Subsection (b-11), one
credit in physical education under Section 28.002(a)(2)(C).
SECTION 4. Sections 28.0021(b) and 28.025(b-1), Education
Code, as amended by this Act, apply only to students entering the
ninth grade during the 2013-2014 school year or a later school year.
For students entering a grade above ninth grade during the
2013-2014 school year, Sections 28.0021(b) and 28.025(b-1),
Education Code, as those sections existed before amendment by this
Act, apply, and those sections are continued in effect for that
purpose.
SECTION 5. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2013.