Dear TEA Public Information Office,

I am submitting a public information request under the Texas Public Information Act (Chapter 552, Texas Government Code) for the following records:

1. SBOE Advisory Board Report on Compensatory and Bilingual Education Weights (1984-1985). HB 72 (68th Legislature, 2nd Called Session, 1984) added Section 16.202 to the Education Code, directing the State Board of Education to appoint an advisory board to assist in determining annual average costs for compensatory and bilingual education programs, with recommendations to be submitted to the 69th Legislature. I am requesting any records of this advisory board's work, including the final report, cost analyses, meeting minutes, or correspondence related to the determination of the compensatory education weight (0.2) and bilingual education weight (0.1) established by HB 72. As TEA maintains records for the SBOE, these records may be held by your agency.

2. 2018 Commission on Public School Finance -- Staff Analyses and Cost Modeling for Compensatory Education Weight Recommendations. The Commission's Expenditures Working Group recommended a tiered compensatory education weight of 0.225 to 0.275 (Recommendation #7, later Recommendation #15 in the final report), with an estimated annual cost of $1.1 billion. The publicly available Commission documents on TEA's website do not include the staff analyses, cost models, or methodology documents explaining how the specific values of 0.225 and 0.275 were derived. I am requesting any TEA staff analyses, spreadsheets, cost estimates, or internal memoranda prepared in support of the Commission's Expenditures Working Group that explain the derivation of these weight values. This would likely include work product from the Chief School Finance Officer's team (Leo Lopez) or other TEA staff who supported the Commission.

I am a graduate student at the University of North Texas conducting research on the Texas school finance system. I am requesting these records in electronic format. If there are associated costs, please provide a fee estimate and I will respond promptly.

Respectfully,
Kevin Hopper
Graduate Student, Interdisciplinary Studies
University of North Texas
kevin.hopper1@gmail