S.B. No. 1491
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to testing and remedial education of students 55 years of
    1-2  age or older and to tuition and fees charged to those students at
    1-3  public institutions of higher education.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 51.306, Education Code, is amended by
    1-6  adding Subsection (q) to read as follows:
    1-7        (q)  An institution may exempt a non-degree-seeking or
    1-8  non-certificate-seeking student who will be 55 years of age or
    1-9  older on the first class day of a term or semester from the testing
   1-10  requirements imposed by this section as a condition for enrollment
   1-11  during that term or semester in a course.
   1-12        SECTION 2.  Subchapter B, Chapter 54, Education Code, is
   1-13  amended by adding Section 54.067 to read as follows:
   1-14        Sec. 54.067.  STUDENTS 55 YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER.  (a)  An
   1-15  institution of higher education may charge a student 55 years of
   1-16  age or older tuition and fees at rates that are lower than the
   1-17  rates otherwise provided by this chapter, under the condition that
   1-18  a student under 55 years of age will not be precluded from
   1-19  enrolling in a course for credit toward a degree or certificate.
   1-20  The institution may set additional qualifications that a student
   1-21  must meet to qualify for tuition and fees at rates set under this
   1-22  section and may set different rates for different programs,
   1-23  campuses, or courses.  The institution may set rates under this
   1-24  section for resident students, nonresident students, or both, and
    2-1  may set different rates for resident students and nonresident
    2-2  students.
    2-3        (b)  A tuition or fee rate set under this section must apply
    2-4  uniformly to each student that meets the applicable qualifications
    2-5  set by the institution to pay tuition or fees at that rate.
    2-6        (c)  The legislature in an appropriations act shall account
    2-7  for the rates authorized by Subsection (a) in a way that does not
    2-8  increase the general revenue appropriations to that institution.
    2-9        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-10  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-11  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-12  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-13  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-14  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-15  passage, and it is so enacted.