By Lewis of Orange, Price                             H.B. No. 1836
       74R5295 JSA-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the tuition charged to certain residents of bordering
    1-3  states at certain two-year public institutions of higher education.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 54.060, Education Code, is amended by
    1-6  amending Subsections (a) and (e) and adding Subsection (f) to read
    1-7  as follows:
    1-8        (a)  The nonresident tuition fee prescribed in this chapter
    1-9  does not apply to a nonresident student who is a resident of
   1-10  Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, or Oklahoma and who registers in a
   1-11  two-year institution in the Lamar University System, <any> Texas
   1-12  public junior college, or public technical institute<, as defined
   1-13  by Section 61.003 of this code,> that is situated in a county
   1-14  immediately adjacent to the state in which the nonresident student
   1-15  resides.  The nonresident tuition fee prescribed in this chapter
   1-16  does not apply to a nonresident student who is a resident of New
   1-17  Mexico or Oklahoma and who registers in a public technical
   1-18  institute that is situated in a county that is within 100 miles of
   1-19  the state in which the nonresident student resides and who is
   1-20  admitted for the purpose of utilizing available instructional
   1-21  facilities. The nonresident student at a two-year institution in
   1-22  the Lamar University System, public junior college, or public
   1-23  technical institute <student> described in this section shall pay
   1-24  an amount equivalent to the amount charged a Texas student
    2-1  registered at a similar school in the state in which the
    2-2  nonresident student resides.  The nonresident student at a public
    2-3  junior college or public technical institute described in this
    2-4  section shall pay equivalent fees and charges to those charged
    2-5  Texas students registered at a similar institution in the state in
    2-6  which the nonresident student resides, when such student registers
    2-7  at a Texas public senior upper level (those institutions offering
    2-8  only junior, senior, and graduate level programs) institution of
    2-9  higher education located within the Texas public junior college
   2-10  district or within the county in which the public technical
   2-11  institute is located or adjacent to such county and from which the
   2-12  nonresident student has graduated or completed 45 semester credit
   2-13  hours.
   2-14        (e)  The payment of resident tuition at a two-year
   2-15  institution in the Lamar University System or public technical
   2-16  institute as authorized by Subsection (a) of this section does not
   2-17  affect the constitutionally dedicated funding to which institutions
   2-18  of higher education are entitled under Article VII, Section 17, of
   2-19  the Texas Constitution.
   2-20        (f)  In this section:
   2-21              (1)  "Public technical institute" has the meaning
   2-22  assigned by Section 61.003 of this code.
   2-23              (2)  "Two-year institution in the Lamar University
   2-24  System" means:
   2-25                    (A)  Lamar University at Orange;
   2-26                    (B)  Lamar University at Port Arthur; or
   2-27                    (C)  the Lamar University Institute of Technology
    3-1  in Beaumont.
    3-2        SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with tuition charged
    3-3  for the fall semester of 1995.
    3-4        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-5  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-6  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-7  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-8  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    3-9  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   3-10  passage, and it is so enacted.