By:  Bivins                                           S.B. No. 1324
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to a qualified exemption of certain students from the
    1-2  Texas academic skills program.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 51.306, Education Code, is amended by
    1-5  amending Subsection (b) and adding Subsection (n) to read as
    1-6  follows:
    1-7        (b)  Except as provided by Subsections (m) and (n) of this
    1-8  section, all <All> students in the following categories who enter
    1-9  public institutions of higher education <in the fall of 1989 and
   1-10  thereafter> must be tested for reading, writing, and mathematics
   1-11  skills:
   1-12              (1)  all full-time and part-time freshmen enrolled in a
   1-13  certificate or degree program;
   1-14              (2)  any other student, prior to the accumulation of
   1-15  nine or more semester credit hours or the equivalent; and
   1-16              (3)  any transfer student with fewer than 60 semester
   1-17  credit hours or the equivalent who has not previously taken the
   1-18  tests.
   1-19        For that purpose, the institution shall use a test instrument
   1-20  prescribed by the board.  The same instrument shall be used at all
   1-21  public institutions of higher education.
   1-22        (n)  This section does not apply to a student who is exempted
   1-23  by this subsection or has previously qualified for an exemption
   1-24  under this subsection.   A student is exempt if the student:
    2-1              (1)  has scores that are at least in the 80th
    2-2  percentile, or a higher percentile established by Texas Higher
    2-3  Education Coordinating Board rule, on:
    2-4                    (A)  the math, writing, and reading sections of
    2-5  the American College Test  or the test described by Section
    2-6  21.551(a) of this code; or
    2-7                    (B)  the verbal and math sections of the
    2-8  Scholastic Assessment Test; and
    2-9              (2)  enrolls at an institution of higher education not
   2-10  later than the fifth anniversary of the date the student took the
   2-11  test on which the student received the scores described by this
   2-12  subsection.
   2-13        SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act to Section
   2-14  51.306, Education Code, applies beginning with the fall semester in
   2-15  1993.
   2-16        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-17  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-18  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-19  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-20  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-21  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-22  passage, and it is so enacted.