1-1  By:  Ratliff                                           S.B. No. 179
    1-2        (In the Senate - Filed January 11, 1995; January 18, 1995,
    1-3  read first time and referred to Committee on Education;
    1-4  January 25, 1995, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas
    1-5  8, Nays 1; January 25, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-6                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-7                                AN ACT
    1-8  relating to tuition fees at public upper-level institutions of
    1-9  higher education for students residing in bordering states.
   1-10        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-11        SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 54.060, Education Code,
   1-12  is amended to read as follows:
   1-13        (a)  The nonresident tuition fee prescribed by <in> this
   1-14  chapter does not apply to a nonresident student who is a resident
   1-15  of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, or Oklahoma and who registers
   1-16  in any Texas public upper-level institution of higher education,
   1-17  public junior college, or public technical institute, as defined by
   1-18  Section 61.003 of this code, that is situated in a county
   1-19  immediately adjacent to the state in which the nonresident student
   1-20  resides.  The nonresident tuition fee prescribed by <in> this
   1-21  chapter does not apply to a nonresident student who is a resident
   1-22  of New Mexico or Oklahoma and who registers in a public technical
   1-23  institute that is situated in a county that is within 100 miles of
   1-24  the state in which the nonresident student resides and who is
   1-25  admitted for the purpose of utilizing available instructional
   1-26  facilities.  A <The> nonresident <junior college or public
   1-27  technical institute> student described by <in> this section shall
   1-28  pay an amount equivalent to the amount charged a Texas student
   1-29  registered at a similar school in the state in which the
   1-30  nonresident student resides.  <The nonresident student described in
   1-31  this section shall pay equivalent fees and charges to those charged
   1-32  Texas students registered at a similar institution in the state in
   1-33  which the nonresident student resides, when such student registers
   1-34  at a Texas public senior upper level (those institutions offering
   1-35  only junior, senior, and graduate level programs) institution of
   1-36  higher education located within the Texas public junior college
   1-37  district or within the county in which the public technical
   1-38  institute is located or adjacent to such county and from which the
   1-39  nonresident student has graduated or completed 45 semester credit
   1-40  hours.>
   1-41        SECTION 2.  Section 61.003, Education Code, is amended by
   1-42  adding Subsection (16) to read as follows:
   1-43              (16)  "Public upper-level institution of higher
   1-44  education" means an institution of higher education that offers
   1-45  only junior-level, senior-level, and graduate-level courses.
   1-46        SECTION 3.  The change in law made by this Act applies
   1-47  beginning with tuition fees due for the fall semester of 1995.
   1-48        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-49  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-50  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-51  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-52  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-53  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-54  passage, and it is so enacted.
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