Open Source Law Proposal for State Agencies

I wonder why Texas hasn't gone here yet since we never seem to have any money for anything except slush funds for new business?

General Assembly

Proposed Bill No. 5299

January Session, 2007

LCO No. 782

Referred to Committee on Government Administration and Elections

Introduced by:

REP. O'BRIEN, 24th Dist.

AN ACT CONCERNING COMPUTER SOFTWARE PURCHASED BY STATE AGENCIES.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:
That the general statutes be amended to require state agencies to consider the
availability of open source code software when purchasing, licensing or
procuring computer software, as an alternative to proprietary software, based
upon a comparison of costs and quality standards.
Statement of Purpose:
To require state agencies to consider the use of open source code software as an alternative to the use of proprietary software.

It seems like Connecticut is off to the right start, unlike Texas. I expect I will get way more information on how this will benefit public schools when I sit in at the TCEA conference with the new group I joined (thanks to a post by Miguel Guhlin) that is just now forming, the SOS-SIG. I am looking forward to hearing what others have done in this area. My push is piloting Linux boxes for my classroom using only open source and free Internet-based applications with each student using their own flash drives. While this is more than likely not an original idea, it would be a stretch for my ISD.