By: Luna S.B. No. 446 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT 1-1 relating to the courses required in a degree program operated by a 1-2 higher education medical and dental unit under contract with the 1-3 United States Army. 1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: 1-5 SECTION 1. Section 51.301, Education Code, is amended to 1-6 read as follows: 1-7 Sec. 51.301. GOVERNMENT OR POLITICAL SCIENCE. (a) Every 1-8 college and university receiving state support or state aid from 1-9 public funds shall give a course of instruction in government or 1-10 political science which includes consideration of the Constitution 1-11 of the United States and the constitutions of the states, with 1-12 special emphasis on that of Texas. This course shall have a credit 1-13 value of not less than six semester hours or its equivalent. No 1-14 college or university receiving state support or state aid from 1-15 public funds may grant a baccalaureate degree or a lesser degree or 1-16 academic certificate to any person unless he has credit for such a 1-17 course. The college or university may determine that a student has 1-18 satisfied this requirement in whole or in part on the basis of 1-19 credit granted to him by the college or university for a 1-20 substantially equivalent course completed at another accredited 1-21 college or university or on the basis of the student's successful 1-22 completion of an advanced standing examination administered on the 1-23 conditions and under the circumstances common for the college or 1-24 university's advanced standing examinations. The college or 2-1 university may grant as much as three semester hours of credit or 2-2 its equivalent toward satisfaction of this requirement for 2-3 substantially equivalent work completed by the student in the 2-4 program of an approved senior R.O.T.C. unit. Credit for the 2-5 advanced standing examination referred to above shall never exceed 2-6 three semester hours. 2-7 (b) The requirement of Subsection (a) that the required 2-8 course must include special emphasis on the Texas Constitution does 2-9 not apply to a degree granted on completion of an academic program 2-10 offered by a medical and dental unit, as that term is defined by 2-11 Section 61.003, to a student who is a member of the armed forces of 2-12 the United States, including the reserves or national guard, if: 2-13 (1) the program is operated by the medical and dental 2-14 unit under contract with the United States Army; 2-15 (2) the program requires less than two years of 2-16 residency in this state; and 2-17 (3) the principal participants in the program are 2-18 military personnel stationed outside this state. 2-19 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the 2-20 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 2-21 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 2-22 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 2-23 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended, 2-24 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its 2-25 passage, and it is so enacted.