By: Haggerty H.B. No. 514
73R738 CAE-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to an exemption from regulation as a proprietary school
1-3 for certain courses offering training in computers or computer
1-4 software.
1-5 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-6 SECTION 1. Section 32.12(a), Education Code, is amended to
1-7 read as follows:
1-8 (a) The following schools or educational institutions are
1-9 specifically exempt from the provisions of this chapter and are not
1-10 within the definition of "proprietary school":
1-11 (1) a school or educational institution supported by
1-12 taxation from either a local or State source;
1-13 (2) nonprofit schools owned, controlled, operated, and
1-14 conducted by bona fide religious, denominational, eleemosynary, or
1-15 similar public institutions exempt from property taxation under the
1-16 laws of this State, but such schools may choose to apply for a
1-17 certificate of approval hereunder, and upon approval and issuance,
1-18 shall be subject to the provisions of this chapter as determined by
1-19 the administrator;
1-20 (3) a school or training program which offers
1-21 instruction of purely avocational or recreational subjects as
1-22 determined by the administrator;
1-23 (4) a course or courses of instruction or study
1-24 sponsored by an employer for the training and preparation of its
2-1 own employees, and for which no tuition fee is charged to the
2-2 student;
2-3 (5) a course or courses of study or instruction
2-4 sponsored by a recognized trade, business, or professional
2-5 organization for the instruction of the members of the organization
2-6 with a closed membership;
2-7 (6) private colleges or universities which award a
2-8 recognized baccalaureate, or higher degree, and which maintain and
2-9 operate educational programs for which a majority of the credits
2-10 given are transferable to a college, junior college, or university
2-11 supported entirely or partly by taxation from either a local or
2-12 State source;
2-13 (7) a school which is otherwise regulated and approved
2-14 under and pursuant to any other law of the State, except as
2-15 provided by Subsection (c) of this section;
2-16 (8) aviation schools or instructors approved by and
2-17 under the supervision of the Federal Aviation Administration;
2-18 (9) a school which offers intensive review courses
2-19 designed to prepare students for certified public accountancy
2-20 tests, public accountancy tests, law school aptitude tests, bar
2-21 examinations, or medical college admissions tests; and
2-22 (10) a course or courses of instruction or study that
2-23 offer training relating solely to the operation or use of a
2-24 computer or computer software.
2-25 SECTION 2. Section 32.11, Education Code, is amended by
2-26 adding Subdivisions (10) and (11) to read as follows:
2-27 (10) "Computer" means an electronic, magnetic, or
3-1 other high-speed data processing device that performs logical,
3-2 arithmetic, or memory functions by the manipulations of electronic
3-3 or magnetic impulses.
3-4 (11) "Computer software" means an ordered set of data
3-5 representing coded instructions or statements that when executed
3-6 by a computer cause the computer to process data or perform
3-7 specific functions.
3-8 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
3-9 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-10 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-11 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-12 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-13 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-14 passage, and it is so enacted.