Enrolled Bill Summary

            House Bill 1799 amends the Education Code to require the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to develop and periodically revise a long-range statewide plan to inform and guide policy makers and ensure that public colleges and universities meet the current and future higher education needs of each region of the state and that adequate higher education services are reasonably and equally available to residents of each region. The bill requires the board to examine undergraduate, graduate, professional, and research programs provided by both public and private colleges and universities and to identify areas of the state that, given certain demographic, geographic, and economic factors, have or are likely to have significantly greater higher education needs than can be met by the services currently provided in those areas by existing institutions. The board must identify as specifically as practicable the programs or fields of study for which an area has or will have a significant unmet need; must consider the educational attainment and college participation rates of area residents; and must include in a biennial report to the governor and the legislature's presiding officers any recommendations for administrative or legislative action to address unmet needs as efficiently as possible.