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Senate Bill 28 |
Senate Author: Zaffirini et al. |
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Effective: 9-1-11 |
House Sponsor: Branch et al. |
Senate Bill 28 amends the Education Code to enact the TEXAS Grant College Readiness Reform Act and establish criteria both for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board's annual allocation and distribution of money available for TEXAS grants among eligible institutions of higher education and for prioritizing the award of grants to eligible individuals.
Previous law required the coordinating board and the eligible institution to give highest priority to awarding TEXAS grants to students who demonstrated the greatest financial need. Senate Bill 28 instead requires the coordinating board and the eligible institutions to give priority to students who demonstrate the greatest financial need and whose expected family contribution does not exceed 60 percent of the average statewide amount of tuition and required fees that a full-time resident student in a bachelor's degree program would be charged at a general academic teaching institution. In addition to giving such priority, the bill requires each general academic teaching institution, beginning with grants awarded for the 2013-2014 academic year, to give highest priority to students who graduate from a public or accredited private school in Texas on or after May 1, 2013; who have completed the recommended high school program or its equivalent; and who have attained certain measures of academic success relating to test scores, class rank, grade point average, high school course credits, or college credit hours earned in dual credit courses. The bill requires a general academic teaching institution, if there is money available above the amount required to award an initial TEXAS grant to all students meeting those criteria, to make awards to other students who meet the specified secondary criteria, provided that the institution continues to give priority to students based on greatest financial need and expected family contribution.
Senate Bill 28 sets out initial eligibility requirements for a TEXAS grant for a person graduating from high school on or after May 1, 2013, and enrolling in a general academic teaching institution and sets out criteria for determining whether an associate degree candidate who has not completed that degree, or whose final college transcript is unavailable, has satisfied the associate degree requirement for such a student's initial eligibility for a TEXAS grant.
Senate Bill 28 specifies that a person who was eligible to receive an initial TEXAS grant in an academic year for which sufficient money was not available for the coordinating board to award initial TEXAS grants to at least 10 percent of the persons eligible for initial grants in that year, has not previously been awarded a TEXAS grant, has not received a bachelor's degree, and meets the continuing eligibility and academic performance requirements is eligible to receive an initial TEXAS grant in any academic year in which funding is sufficient to award initial TEXAS grants to eligible applicants that year. The bill specifies that such a person is entitled to the highest priority if the person was entitled to that priority when the person first established eligibility for an initial grant, may receive subsequent TEXAS grants, and is not entitled to TEXAS grants for any previously completed academic year.
Senate Bill 28 requires the coordinating board, not later than September 1 of each year, to report to the Legislative Oversight Committee on the TEXAS grant program and Teach for Texas grant program regarding the operation of the TEXAS grant program, including certain information from the three preceding state fiscal years.