By Maxey                                        H.B. No. 1129

      75R3903 JSA-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the transfer of credit for certain junior college

 1-3     courses to other institutions of higher education.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 61.051(g), Education Code, is amended to

 1-6     read as follows:

 1-7           (g)  The board shall develop and promulgate a basic core of

 1-8     general academic courses which shall be freely transferable among

 1-9     all public institutions of higher education in Texas which are

1-10     members of recognized accrediting agencies on the same basis as if

1-11     the work had been taken at the receiving institution.  The board

1-12     shall develop and implement policies to provide for the  free

1-13     transferability of lower division course credit among institutions

1-14     of higher education.  The board by rule shall require that each

1-15     institution of higher education accept the transfer of  course

1-16     credit earned at an accredited public junior college in any basic

1-17     core academic course covering substantially the same subject matter

1-18     as a course offered at the institution to which the credit is to be

1-19     transferred.

1-20           SECTION 2.  The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

1-21     shall adopt rules under Section 61.051(g), Education Code, as

1-22     amended by this Act, for the transfer of core course credit hours

1-23     earned at a public junior college not later than January 1, 1998.

1-24           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-1     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-2     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-3     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-4     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.