Austin – State Rep. Dianne White Delisi today proposed legislation (House Bill 2429) to instruct the Texas Education Agency to prepare a report on all current public education mandates from both the state and federal governments. The report will be provided to the governor, lieutenant governor, speaker of the house, and the Texas Legislature prior to the beginning of the next session and serve as a reference tool for lawmakers to use when working on public education policy. It could also serve as a starting point for legislative proposals to bring about relief from various mandates.


"I hear from my school districts that they are required to comply with an enormous number of mandates, some of them unfunded," Delisi stated. "Various mandates may also be duplicated at both the state and federal level and a potential for conflicts between these various mandates exists. I thought a good starting place for addressing the larger topic of public education mandate reform would be to get one report that lists all of them."


Delisi's legislation would require that all public education mandates from both the state and federal governments be listed. Whether the mandate was wholly funded, partially funded, or unfunded would also need to be disclosed, along with the sources of the funding.


House Bill 2429 would also require that the Texas Education Agency provide analysis on the various mandates to determine which ones may be duplicative or in conflict with each other. Suggestions for revisions or eliminations of current mandates will also be part of the report.


"This bill also requires the Texas Education Agency to solicit information on mandates from local school districts, school district employees, and others interested in public education mandates," Delisi said. "The completed report will also be posted to the Internet and periodically updated as an ongoing reference tool for both legislators and the public."


Delisi said that her idea for the bill came from discussions with both teachers and administrators about the need for mandate relief and not having a readily available comprehensive list of all public education mandates available for review.


"I believe this information will be valuable to both legislators, Texas' school districts, and the general public," Delisi said. "It will help us know what mandates are out there, what they actually cost and who pays for them. It may even help us to get rid of some of them where the costs outweigh the benefits."

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