By Kamel, Williamson, Rabuck,                         H.B. No. 1404

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the authority of public institutions of higher

 1-3     education to offer courses by distance learning.

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

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

 1-6     read as follows:

 1-7           (j)  No off-campus courses for credit may be offered by any

 1-8     public technical institute, public community college, or public

 1-9     college or university without specific prior approval of the board.

1-10     However, any of those institutions without additional board

1-11     approval may offer a course within the approved curriculum of the

1-12     institution to a student who accesses the course through a computer

1-13     or computer network.  To facilitate the delivery of courses by

1-14     distance learning and to improve access to those courses, the board

1-15     shall encourage collaborative efforts to make the benefits of

1-16     computer access to educational opportunities widely available.  The

1-17     board shall maintain a central informational resource, to be called

1-18     the Texas On-Line University, accessible to the public through the

1-19     Internet and other similar telecommunications networks accessible

1-20     by computer by the general public, containing information relating

1-21     to all computer-accessible distance learning programs offered by

1-22     institutions of higher education and including computer links,

1-23     addresses, or other directions to assist an interested person to

1-24     obtain additional information directly from the appropriate

1-25     institution.  The board may not prohibit a public junior college

 2-1     district from offering a course for credit outside the boundaries

 2-2     of the junior college district when such course has met the

 2-3     requirements for approval as adopted by the board.  The board shall

 2-4     establish regulations for the coordination of credit activities of

 2-5     adult and continuing education by public technical institutes,

 2-6     public community colleges, or public colleges and universities.

 2-7           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-8     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-9     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-10     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-11     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-12     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-13     passage, and it is so enacted.