1-1 By: Ratliff S.B. No. 181
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 9, Nays 0; January 25, 1995, sent to printer.)
1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-7 AN ACT
1-8 relating to college or university credit in government or political
1-9 science and in American or Texas history through advanced standing
1-10 examination.
1-11 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12 SECTION 1. Sections 51.301 and 51.302, Education Code, are
1-13 amended to read as follows:
1-14 Sec. 51.301. Government or Political Science. Every college
1-15 and university receiving state support or state aid from public
1-16 funds shall give a course of instruction in government or political
1-17 science which includes consideration of the Constitution of the
1-18 United States and the constitutions of the states, with special
1-19 emphasis on that of Texas. This course shall have a credit value
1-20 of not less than six semester hours or its equivalent. No college
1-21 or university receiving state support or state aid from public
1-22 funds may grant a baccalaureate degree or a lesser degree or
1-23 academic certificate to any person unless he has credit for such a
1-24 course. The college or university may determine that a student has
1-25 satisfied this requirement in whole or in part on the basis of
1-26 credit granted to him by the college or university for a
1-27 substantially equivalent course completed at another accredited
1-28 college or university or on the basis of the student's successful
1-29 completion of an advanced standing examination administered on the
1-30 conditions and under the circumstances common for the college or
1-31 university's advanced standing examinations. The college or
1-32 university may grant as much as three semester hours of credit or
1-33 its equivalent toward satisfaction of this requirement for
1-34 substantially equivalent work completed by the student in the
1-35 program of an approved senior R.O.T.C. unit. <Credit for the
1-36 advanced standing examination referred to above shall never exceed
1-37 three semester hours.>
1-38 Sec. 51.302. American or Texas History. No college or
1-39 university receiving state support or state aid from public funds
1-40 may grant a baccalaureate degree or a lesser degree or academic
1-41 certificate to any person unless he has credit for six semester
1-42 hours or its equivalent in American History. A student is entitled
1-43 to submit as much as three semester hours of credit or its
1-44 equivalent in Texas History in partial satisfaction of this
1-45 requirement. The college or university may determine that a
1-46 student has satisfied this requirement in whole or part on the
1-47 basis of credit granted to him by the college or university for a
1-48 substantially equivalent course completed at another accredited
1-49 college or university, or on the basis of the student's successful
1-50 completion of an advanced standing examination administered on the
1-51 conditions and under the circumstances common for the college or
1-52 university's advanced standing examinations. The college or
1-53 university may grant as much as three semester hours of credit or
1-54 its equivalent toward satisfaction of this requirement for
1-55 substantially equivalent work completed by a student in the program
1-56 of an approved senior R.O.T.C. unit. <Credit for the advanced
1-57 standing examination referred to above shall never exceed three
1-58 semester hours.>
1-59 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
1-60 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-61 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-62 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-63 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-64 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-65 passage, and it is so enacted.
1-66 * * * * *