By Telford                                            H.B. No. 1384

         75R5174 JSA-F                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the tuition charged to certain nonresident students

 1-3     registered at certain upper-level public institutions of higher

 1-4     education.

 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 54.060(a), Education Code, is amended to

 1-7     read as follows:

 1-8           (a)  The nonresident tuition fee prescribed by [in] this

 1-9     chapter does not apply to a nonresident student who is a resident

1-10     of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, or Oklahoma and who registers

1-11     in a public upper-level institution of higher education, two-year

1-12     institution in the Lamar University System, Texas public junior

1-13     college, or public technical institute that is situated in a county

1-14     immediately adjacent to the state in which the nonresident student

1-15     resides.  The nonresident tuition fee prescribed by [in] this

1-16     chapter does not apply to a nonresident student who is a resident

1-17     of New Mexico or Oklahoma and who registers in a public technical

1-18     institute that is situated in a county that is within 100 miles of

1-19     the state in which the nonresident student resides and who is

1-20     admitted for the purpose of utilizing available instructional

1-21     facilities.  The nonresident student [at a two-year institution in

1-22     the Lamar University System, public junior college, or public

1-23     technical institute] described in this subsection [section] shall

1-24     pay an amount equivalent to the amount charged a Texas student

 2-1     registered at a similar school in the state in which the

 2-2     nonresident student resides.  For purposes of this subsection,

 2-3     "public upper-level institution of  higher education" means an

 2-4     institution of higher education that offers only junior-level and

 2-5     senior-level courses or only junior-level, senior-level, and

 2-6     graduate-level courses. [The nonresident student at a public junior

 2-7     college or public technical institute described in this section

 2-8     shall pay equivalent fees and charges to those charged Texas

 2-9     students registered at a similar institution in the state in which

2-10     the nonresident student resides, when such student registers at a

2-11     Texas public senior upper level (those institutions offering only

2-12     junior, senior, and graduate level programs) institution of higher

2-13     education located within the Texas public junior college district

2-14     or within the county in which the public technical institute is

2-15     located or adjacent to such county and from which the nonresident

2-16     student has graduated or completed 45 semester credit hours.]

2-17           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with tuition charged

2-18     for the 1997 fall semester.

2-19           SECTION 3.  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.