By Kamel H.B. No. 1404 75R5281 JSA-D 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 but the board may not prohibit any of those institutions from 1-11 offering or conducting a course for credit by instructional 1-12 telecommunication or other distance learning method to a person who 1-13 receives the instruction at an off-campus location that is not a 1-14 facility owned or operated by the institution if the course is 1-15 otherwise within the approved curriculum of the institution. The 1-16 board may not prohibit a public junior college district from 1-17 offering a course for credit outside the boundaries of the junior 1-18 college district when such course has met the requirements for 1-19 approval as adopted by the board. The board shall establish 1-20 regulations for the coordination of credit activities of adult and 1-21 continuing education by public technical institutes, public 1-22 community colleges, or public colleges and universities. 1-23 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the 1-24 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 2-1 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 2-2 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 2-3 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended, 2-4 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its 2-5 passage, and it is so enacted.