86R9795 SOS-D
By: Talarico H.B. No. 3008
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the establishment of a civic education project fund for
supporting student civic education projects and educator
professional development related to those projects.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter Z, Chapter 29, Education Code, is
amended by adding Section 29.919 to read as follows:
Sec. 29.919. CIVIC EDUCATION PROJECT FUND. (a) In this
section:
(1) "Civic education project" means a project that
includes the concepts of civic engagement and the rights and
responsibilities of citizenship and may combine out-of-school
service experience with academic study.
(2) "Fund" means the civic education project fund.
(b) The civic education project fund is an account in the
general revenue fund administered by the commissioner.
(c) The fund consists of:
(1) gifts, grants, or donations to the fund; and
(2) money appropriated, credited, or transferred to
the fund by or at the direction of the legislature.
(d) The fund is established for the purpose of:
(1) providing public school students enrolled in the
fourth or a higher grade who are economically disadvantaged, as
determined by the commissioner, the opportunity to complete a civic
education project; and
(2) supporting educator professional development to
assist educators in preparing students described by Subdivision (1)
to successfully complete a civic education project.
(e) Money in the fund may be used only as provided by this
section.
(f) In allocating money from the fund, the commissioner may
give priority to a school district in which at least 40 percent of
the students enrolled in the district on September 1 of the school
year are economically disadvantaged, as determined by the
commissioner.
(g) The commissioner may adopt rules to implement this
section.
SECTION 2. The fund established under Section 29.919,
Education Code, as added by this Act, may be used for the purposes
described by Subsection (d) of that section beginning with the
2020-2021 school year.
SECTION 3. 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, 2019.