75R7965 JSA-F                           

         By Kamel                                              H.B. No. 1404

         Substitute the following for H.B. No. 1404:

         By Rabuck                                         C.S.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 may offer a course approved by

1-11     the board to be delivered by distance learning and otherwise within

1-12     the approved curriculum of the institution to a student residing

1-13     anywhere in this state who accesses the course through a computer

1-14     or computer network.  To facilitate the delivery of courses by

1-15     distance learning and to improve access to those courses, the board

1-16     shall encourage collaborative efforts to make the benefits of

1-17     computer access to educational opportunities widely available

1-18     throughout the state.  The board may not prohibit a public junior

1-19     college district from offering a course for credit outside the

1-20     boundaries of the junior college district when such course has met

1-21     the requirements for approval as adopted by the board.  The board

1-22     shall establish regulations for the coordination of credit

1-23     activities of adult and continuing education by public technical

1-24     institutes, public community colleges, or public colleges and

 2-1     universities.

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

 2-3     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-4     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-5     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-6     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

 2-7     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

 2-8     passage, and it is so enacted.