By Shapiro                                            S.B. No. 1491
       74R7913 JSA-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to testing and remedial education of students 55 years of
    1-3  age or older and to tuition and fees charged to those students at
    1-4  public institutions of higher education.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Section 51.306, Education Code, is amended by
    1-7  adding Subsection (q) to read as follows:
    1-8        (q)  An institution may exempt a person who will be 55 years
    1-9  of age or older on the first class day of a term or semester from
   1-10  the testing requirements imposed by this section as a condition for
   1-11  enrollment during that term or semester in a course for credit
   1-12  toward a degree or certificate.
   1-13        SECTION 2.  Subchapter B, Chapter 54, Education Code, is
   1-14  amended by adding Section 54.067 to read as follows:
   1-15        Sec. 54.067.  STUDENTS 55 YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER.  (a)  An
   1-16  institution of higher education may charge a student 55 years of
   1-17  age or older tuition and fees at rates that are lower than the
   1-18  rates otherwise provided by this chapter.  The institution may set
   1-19  additional qualifications that a student must meet to qualify for
   1-20  tuition and fees at rates set under this section and may set
   1-21  different rates for different programs, campuses, or courses.  The
   1-22  institution may set rates under this section for resident students,
   1-23  nonresident students, or both, and may set different rates for
   1-24  resident students and nonresident students.
    2-1        (b)  A tuition or fee rate set under this section must apply
    2-2  uniformly to each student that meets the applicable qualifications
    2-3  set by the institution to pay tuition or fees at that rate.
    2-4        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-5  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-6  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-7  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-8  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-9  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-10  passage, and it is so enacted.