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 may offer a distance learning

1-11     course approved by the board with no in-state geographic

1-12     restrictions if the course is within the approved curriculum of the

1-13     institution.  To facilitate the delivery of courses by distance

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

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

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

1-17     shall maintain a central informational resource accessible to the

1-18     general public, to be called the Texas Colleges On-Line, on which

1-19     institutions can place information relating to all

1-20     computer-accessible distance learning courses offered for credit by

1-21     institutions of higher education and including computer links,

1-22     addresses, or other directions to assist an interested person to

1-23     obtain additional information directly from the appropriate

1-24     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.

         _______________________________     _______________________________

             President of the Senate              Speaker of the House

               I certify that H.B. No. 1404 was passed by the House on April

         9, 1997, by the following vote:  Yeas 144, Nays 0, 2 present, not

         voting; and that the House concurred in Senate amendments to H.B.

         No. 1404 on May 7, 1997, by the following vote:  Yeas 138, Nays 0,

         2 present, not voting.

                                             _______________________________

                                                 Chief Clerk of the House

               I certify that H.B. No. 1404 was passed by the Senate, with

         amendments, on May 5, 1997, by the following vote:  Yeas 31, Nays

         0.

                                             _______________________________

                                                 Secretary of the Senate

         APPROVED:  _____________________

                            Date

                    _____________________

                          Governor