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House Bill 3708 |
House Author: Hochberg |
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Effective: See below |
Senate Sponsor: Zaffirini |
House Bill 3708 amends the Education Code to authorize a public junior college located in a county with a population of 750,000 or more and with less than 65 percent of the county population 25 years and older having graduated from high school to enter into an articulation agreement to partner with one or more school districts in the college's district that have a dropout rate above 15 percent to provide on the junior college campus a dropout recovery program for students to successfully complete and receive a high school diploma from the appropriate partnering school district. The bill sets out eligibility requirements for a person under the age of 26 to enroll in the program, program development requirements for the junior college, and program financing provisions relating to the program's per-student funding and funding sources.
House Bill 3708 expands the Texas Save and Match program to authorize the matching of money contributed to a savings trust by an account owner under a higher education savings plan as well as money paid by a purchaser under a prepaid tuition contract. The bill revises the initial eligibility requirements for a beneficiary, provides for the forfeiture of a matching account and its reversion to the Prepaid Higher Education Tuition Board or program entity under certain circumstances, requires a separate accounting of a matching account and the related contract or trust account balance, and establishes the confidentiality of program records. The bill authorizes the board to establish pilot projects under the program and establishes the Texas save and match trust fund as a trust fund to be held with the comptroller of public accounts, restricts the fund's use to specific program purposes, and authorizes the fund's investment by the board.
House Bill 3708 requires the commissioner of education to transfer gifts, grants, and donations made to the Texas Education Agency for the purpose of tuition exemptions for educational aides to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to distribute to institutions of higher education that provide such exemptions and removes the requirement that savings to the foundation school fund that occur as a result of the Early High School Graduation Scholarship program that are not required for the funding of certain state or school district credits be used first to provide one-year tuition exemptions for specified Temporary Assistance for Needy Families students, with the remainder used for tuition exemptions for educational aides. Previous law entitled an eligible person under the Early High School Graduation Scholarship program to a state credit to apply toward tuition or tuition and mandatory fees at a state public or private institution of higher education. The bill instead requires the commissioner of education to award such credits, caps the total amount of such credits at the amount appropriated for the current state fiscal year for such purposes, and changes the amount transferred from the commissioner to the coordinating board for the payment of the credit. The bill repeals provisions relating to the funding of the program under the Foundation School Program.
House Bill 3708 amends the Education Code, Health and Safety Code, and Human Resources Code to exclude assets in prepaid tuition programs and higher education savings plans from consideration as income or resources for purposes of determining any of the following: a person's eligibility for a TEXAS grant or any other state-funded student financial assistance; whether a child meets family income and resource requirements for eligibility for the child health plan; the amount of financial assistance granted to an individual for the support of dependent children or whether the family meets household income and resource requirements for financial assistance; or eligibility and need for medical assistance.
House Bill 3708 takes effect September 1, 2011, except that repeal of provisions relating to the Texas Save and Match program superseded by the bill takes effect January 1, 2012.