Enrolled Bill Summary

            In 1999, the Texas Legislature created the Toward EXcellence, Access, & Success (TEXAS) grant program to provide financial aid to eligible undergraduate students and to help them pay tuition, fees, and other costs at any public or private college or university in the state. Senate Bill 1596 amends the Education Code to establish the TEXAS grant II program to provide a similar grant of money to enable students to attend two-year public institutions of higher education in the state. The bill sets forth requirements for a student's initial and continued eligibility for receipt of a TEXAS grant II and directs the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the eligible institutions to give highest priority to students with the greatest financial need. The bill also establishes a 75-semester-credit-hour limit on a person's continued receipt of a TEXAS grant II as well as a four-year limit on the person's grant eligibility, beginning at the time of the initial award and the student's enrollment in the two-year college or technical institute, and it prohibits a person from receiving a TEXAS grant and a TEXAS grant II simultaneously.