By Smithee                                            H.B. No. 2178
       74R5479 JSA-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to tuition rates for certain nonresident students of
    1-3  certain public institutions of higher education.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 54, Education Code, is
    1-6  amended by adding Section 54.0601 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 54.0601.  TUITION REDUCTION FOR NONRESIDENTS AT CERTAIN
    1-8  INSTITUTIONS.  (a)  The governing board of a general academic
    1-9  teaching institution, as defined by Section 61.003, may establish a
   1-10  tuition rate that is less than the nonresident tuition rate
   1-11  established by Section 54.0512 for a student who is a resident of a
   1-12  state located not more than 150 miles from the county in which the
   1-13  institution is located, if according to the most recent available
   1-14  space projection of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
   1-15  the institution has a surplus in available space per student.
   1-16        (b)  The tuition rate charged to a nonresident student under
   1-17  this section is the greater of:
   1-18              (1)  the rate that a resident of the state in which the
   1-19  student resides would pay to attend a comparable general academic
   1-20  state-supported institution of higher education in that state; or
   1-21              (2)  the rate charged to a Texas resident at the
   1-22  general academic teaching institution for the same term or
   1-23  semester.
   1-24        (c)  The governing body of an institution may not establish
    2-1  reduced nonresident tuition rates under this section unless the
    2-2  governing body determines that charging the reduced rates would not
    2-3  impair the ability of a Texas resident to enroll in or attend the
    2-4  institution.
    2-5        (d)  The governing body of an institution that establishes
    2-6  reduced nonresident tuition rates under this section may not permit
    2-7  more than 10 percent of the students enrolled in the institution in
    2-8  an academic year to pay tuition at the reduced rates established
    2-9  under this section.
   2-10        SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with tuition charged
   2-11  for the fall semester in 1995.
   2-12        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-13  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-14  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-15  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-16  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-17  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-18  passage, and it is so enacted.