By Cuellar of Webb, et al.                             H.B. No. 743
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to a tuition grant for the tuition of an educationally
    1-3  disadvantaged student at any accredited private school.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 11, Education Code, is
    1-6  amended by adding Section 11.104 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 11.104.  EDUCATION TUITION GRANT DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM.
    1-8  (a)  The Central Education Agency shall select 14 school districts
    1-9  to participate in an education tuition grant demonstration program.
   1-10        (b)  On the request of a parent or guardian of a child who is
   1-11  eligible for enrollment in the national school lunch program of
   1-12  free or reduced-price lunches, a school district participating in
   1-13  the demonstration program shall issue a tuition grant to the parent
   1-14  or guardian to be used for the expenses of educating the child at a
   1-15  private school that:
   1-16              (1)  is recognized as accredited by the State Board of
   1-17  Education under Section 11.26 of this code and that does not
   1-18  discriminate in the admission of students or the employment of
   1-19  teachers on the basis of race, sex, disability, color, or economic
   1-20  status; and
   1-21              (2)  agrees with the Central Education Agency to
   1-22  participate in the  program.
   1-23        (c)  The state and the district shall pay $4,000 for the
   1-24  school year to the private  school in which the child enrolls.  The
    2-1  state and the district share that cost in the same percentages used
    2-2  to determine the state and local shares under Chapter 16 of this
    2-3  code.
    2-4        (d)  A private school that participates in the demonstration
    2-5  program shall provide transportation for the child from the child's
    2-6  home or other designated area to the school and from the school to
    2-7  the child's home or other designated area.
    2-8        SECTION 2.  The Central Education Agency shall implement the
    2-9  demonstration program provided for under this Act beginning with
   2-10  the 1993-1994 school year.
   2-11        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-12  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-13  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-14  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-15  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-16  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-17  passage, and it is so enacted.