MMA S.B. 474 75(R)BILL ANALYSIS


HIGHER EDUCATION
S.B. 474
By: Ogden (Delisi)
3-29-97
Committee Report (Unamended)



BACKGROUND 

Currently, Chapter 54, Texas Education Code (TEC), stipulates that
military personnel and their dependents stationed in Texas are eligible
for in-state tuition rates. Similar language relating to military
personnel stationed outside of Texas, however, is vague. Individual
institutions evaluate student applicants on a case-by-case basis,
resulting in inconsistent and sometimes conflicting determinations.  

Problems with the Texas law were highlighted recently in state and
national publications. Military families who had planned and taken steps
for their children to attend universities in Texas, as residents, were
surprised to discover that they were ineligible for in-state tuition
rates. In one military family, one daughter was denied residency status at
one university while the other was granted residency status at a second
university. The circumstances for both daughters were the same; however,
the rulings by the individual institutions conflicted. Non-resident
tuition rates at the one school cost that family an additional $8,100 a
year. 

State statutes in the TEC and rules by the Texas Higher Education
Coordinating Board provide guidelines for schools; however, the final
decision is left to individual schools. The purpose of SB 474 is to
clarify, in statute, the eligibility criteria relating to residency status
for military personnel and their dependents. 

PURPOSE

S.B. 474 provides specific guidelines for granting resident tuition to
persons residing in Texas who are the spouses and children of members of
the Armed Forces who are stationed outside the state.  

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any
additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency or
institution. 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1.  Amends Section 54.058, Education Code, by adding Subsections
(d) and (i), as follows: 
(d) Provides that a spouse or child of a member of the Armed Forces of the
United States not assigned to duty in Texas, but has previously resided in
Texas for a 12-month period is entitled to pay in-state tuition and fees,
if the member: 
 (1) executed, at least one year prior to the first day of the semester, a
document that indicates Texas as their permanent residence address and
designates Texas to be their permanent residence for income tax purposes; 
 (2) has been registered to vote in Texas the entire year prior to the
first day of the semester; and 
  (3) satisfies at least one of the following:
  (A) has owned real property in Texas and has not been delinquent in any
payments for the entire year prior to the first day of the semester; 
  (B) has had an automobile registered in Texas for the entire year prior
to  the first day of the semester; or 
  (C) has executed a will that has not been revoked indicating Texas as
that member's residence and filed the will with the county clerk in the
county of residency at least one year prior to the the first day of the
semester. 

(i) Provides that a former member of the Armed Forces of the United States
or the former member's spouse or child is entitled to pay in-state tuition
and fees for any term or semester at a state institution of higher
education that begins before the first anniversary of the member's
separation from the Armed Forces if the former member retired or was
honorably discharged and  has complied with requirements in Subsection
(d). 

SECTION 2. Effective date: fall semester, 1997.

SECTION 3. Emergency clause.