HBA-MSH C.S.H.B. 1330 77(R)BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 1330
By: Zbranek
Public Education
4/29/2001
Committee Report (Substituted)



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

The Public Access Initiative created by the commissioner of education was
designed to provide public education stakeholders with access to timely
information for educational planning and decision-making. The projects is
funded in part by the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (TIF) and
supplemented with Texas Education Agency (TEA) dollars.  In recent years,
regional Education Service Centers (ESCs) have become Internet Service
Providers (ISPs) in order to offer Internet access to school districts.
The results of the project have been successful, but have created an after
the fact problem.  Internet access provided by ESCs is often open to the
general public and inappropriate materials that do not relate to
educational purposes are also accessed using the Internet service provided
by the center.  Independent ISPs are concerned that using TIF or TEA
subsidies to create a publically supported business constitutes unfair
competition against private ISPs.  C.S.H.B. 1330 requires centers that
provide Internet service to verify that subscribers are students, teachers,
or school personnel and provide a mechanism to block access to websites
containing obscene material. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 1330 amends the Education Code to require a regional education
service center (center) that provides Internet service to public schools to
verify that each subscriber to the Internet service is a public school
student, teacher, or employee.  The bill requires the center to adopt rules
to ensure that the Internet service provides a mechanism to block or filter
Internet access to websites containing obscene materials. 
 
EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act
takes effect September 1, 2001. 

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 1330 differs from the original by requiring a regional education
service center (center) to verify that each subscriber to, rather than
person using, the Internet service is a public school student, teacher, or
employee.  The substitute requires each center to ensure that the Internet
service provides a mechanism to block access to obscene materials rather
than to ensure that the Internet service cannot be used to gain access to
materials that do not have a legitimate educational purpose.  The
substitute removes the requirement that a center restrict a person using
the Internet service to not more than 35 hours of use each week.