Enrolled Bill Summary

            The Education Code exempts Mexican citizens who demonstrate financial need from having to pay foreign student tuition fees at a public college or university located in a county adjacent to the Texas-Mexico border, at certain public community colleges in such border counties, at Texas A&M University--Kingsville, or at Texas A&M University--Corpus Christi. Senate Bill 743 amends the Education Code to allow those foreign students to pay in-state resident tuition rates for courses that are part of a graduate degree program in public health and are conducted in a county adjacent to the border. The bill also allows a foreign service officer employed by the U.S. Department of State and enrolled in a public college or university to pay resident student tuition rates if the person is assigned to a department office in Mexico.

            The code also allows the governing board of a public college or university to establish an emergency loan program under which students are loaned money to pay tuition and fees. The bill limits the maximum amount of an emergency loan to the amount of tuition and fees for the courses in which the student is actually enrolling.