The Sunset Advisory Commission met to make decisions on and modifications to staff reports for multiple agencies as well as to hear staff presentations and receive agency responses for additional agencies. This report focuses only on discussion regarding Texas Workforce Commission
Staff Presentation
Texas Workforce Commission
Sunset Staff Report
- Found TWC to be generally well run largely because work is proactively managed
- Focused on evaluating key functions of workforce development and unemployment insurance
- Identified concerns in programs run by TWC but that are outside their wheelhouse
- Civil rights division stood out as an area needing improvement; those functions were transferred to TWC in 2003; oversight is split between the Human Rights Commission and TWC; recommendation would transfer functions to TWC
- TWC must rely on schools’ self-reported data from occupational schools; recommendations would require employees’ occupational information be collected from employers as part of wage records
- TWC and local workforce boards administer TWC’s child care program; the agency does not actively manage child care; recommendations aim to provide TWC with better tools to gauge the functions of the child care program
- Recommends that TWC be authorized to participate in a federal debt collection program giving the agency the ability to recover millions in unemployment compensation debt
- Reviewed Texas Workforce Investment Council; recommend continuation of the council; found that functions of Texas Skills Standards Board could be handled by the council
- Recommending continuing both TWC and TWIC for 12 years
- Nelson asked how oversight of civil rights division is split between TWC and Commission on Human Rights
- TWC is responsible for rulemaking and budgeting but most of real work is done by staff
- Nelson asked if TWC can handle the responsibilities of the Commission on Human Rights
- Yes; the move would enhance TWC ability to support the civil rights division with staff needs
- Commission member Dawn Buckingham asked about Issue 2; are there different expectations of career schools versus other public institutions in other states
- Did not look at that
- Buckingham asked about how self-employment is reported by career schools
- They generally reach out to the student and ask them; a self-employed student would report on themselves
- Buckingham noted small employers have said this may be a significant burden
- That was noted in the review; recommend a three year phase in to ease the burden; TWC also has tools to assist employers in their reporting
- Hinojosa asked how much money career schools receive from the state for financial assistance for students
- Schools are not allowed to receive more than 90% of funding from federal student loans
- Hinojosa noted student debt is an issue; trying to find out what money the state provides to students in professional schools
- Buckingham noted they are private institutions so no state money goes to the schools; students are not eligible for THECB loans
- Schwertner asked if there is a way to get information and tie career schools to employment without asking every employer in the state to be burdened with reporting requirements
- No; employers have the best information that the agency needs to verify; reporting is done through wage record reporting; the agency has a tool called autocoder that helps the employers with that reporting
Agency Response
Andre Alcantar, Chairman, TWC
- Appreciates the objective review by Sunset
- Have begun to identify things that can be done to implement recommendations and will work diligently to implement any other recommendations that are developed
- Nelson asked if TWC has the capacity to handle the workload of the Human Rights Commission
- Neutral on that recommendation; commission volunteers are dedicated individuals and hard working
- Nelson asked how much of TWC budget is for child care
- About half and much of that funding comes from federal Department of Labor
- Hinojosa and Luce noted the importance of having public school teachers who know the requirements of occupations that they are supposed to be training their students to be ready for especially in STEM
- Larry Temple, TWC Executive Director, discussed the reality check website developed by TWC that outlines the educational requirements of many careers as well as how much they will need to make to fund certain lifestyles in different areas of the state and how much they can expect to earn in those careers
- Gonzales noted there are provisions built in to HB 5 (83R) to ensure students and instructors are apprised of this information going into 9th grade
- Nelson asked about the vocation rehabilitation program being transferred from DARS; could TWC handle that
- If that was the desire of the legislature TWC would ensure the program was handled correctly and effectively
Wes Jurey, Chairman, TWIC
- Charged with assisting the governor and legislature in studying and planning for workforce investment needs of the state
- Can fine tune work to more effectively meet the needs of the state
- Agree with the recommendation report by Sunset; integrating the Texas Skills Standards Board with TWIC would allow the functions of that board to be undertaken in a more streamlined manner; TWIC could effectively handle those duties
Wayne Oswald, Chairman, Texas Skills Standards Board
- In recent years the role of the board has focused on promoting skills standards and much of the board’s work has been administrative in recent years regarding integrated skills
- An independent board is no longer necessary and the recommendation by Sunset for TWC to absorb the functions of the board is a good step
- Nelson asked how much the state should be doing at the middle school and high school level for skills identification; asked for recommendations to get to young people and parents early enough to make good decisions
- Very critical to get to parents and ensure they are well enough informed about the choices they and their children have to make early in the process; it is important to take every opportunity to talk to ISDs and inform them of what the opportunities are
- Jurey noted giving the ability for agencies to comingle their funds that are related in use could help the funds to be used more effectively; for instance, TEA has funding for early childhood development and TWC has funding to provide child care, if those funds could be integrated the state could be educating children in these child care settings
Tom Anderson, Chair, Commission on Human Rights
- Have a robust alternative dispute resolution system that works well; helps to resolve cases before they get to litigation; both in employment and housing
- The transfer of duties would only be a nominal benefit; the budget for the commission is quite small; the transfer would also remove the independent nature of the commission
- A good alternative would be to give rulemaking authority back to the commission
Public Testimony
Maxine Gallarado, Workers Defense Project
- Agree that there are opportunities to improve transparency and consistency within the agency
- TWC provides an additional forum for dispute resolution for workers
- Support recommendations on requiring TWC to provide complaint data reports
- Support recommendations to create a precedent manual
- Should include an extension of TWC wage claims to two years to align with federal law
Andrea Brower, Texans Care for Children
- Half of the agency budget is spent on child care but the agency does not include anything about child care in their vision and mission statements
- Need to be considering that children should be educated while in child care provided by TWC
- Would like a review and report done on reimbursement rates for child care; they have been very low historically at less than 75% of market rates
Norma Crosby, National Federation of the Blind of Texas
- Believes the rehabilitation act was intended to help the disabled get back to work so it is important to move the vocation rehabilitation program from DARS to TWC