By Turner of Harris                                   H.B. No. 1548

         75R11108 JSA-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to tuition and fees for certain students registered in a

 1-3     public junior college.

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

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 130.003(b), Education Code, is amended to

 1-6     read as follows:

 1-7           (b)  To be eligible for and to receive a proportionate share

 1-8     of the appropriation, a public junior college must:

 1-9                 (1)  be certified as a public junior college as

1-10     prescribed in Section 61.063 of this code;

1-11                 (2)  offer a minimum of 24 semester hours of vocational

1-12     and/or terminal courses;

1-13                 (3)  have complied with all existing laws, rules, and

1-14     regulations governing the establishment and maintenance of public

1-15     junior colleges;

1-16                 (4)  collect, from each full-time and part-time student

1-17     enrolled, matriculation and other session fees in the amounts

1-18     required by Section 54.051 of this code, except, however, the

1-19     governing board of a public junior college district may waive:

1-20                       (A)  the difference in the rate of tuition for

1-21     nonresident and resident students for a person, and his dependents,

1-22     who owns property which is subject to ad valorem taxation by the

1-23     junior college district;

1-24                       (B)  the difference in the rate of tuition and

 2-1     fees for nonresident and resident students for a person who resides

 2-2     in the taxing district of a contiguous public junior college

 2-3     district; or

 2-4                       (C)  all or part of the difference in the rate of

 2-5     tuition and fees for nonresident and resident students for a person

 2-6     who resides in the service area of the junior college district but

 2-7     does not reside in an independent school district that meets the

 2-8     criteria of the coordinating board for the establishment of a

 2-9     junior college district under Section 130.013;

2-10                 (5)  grant, when properly applied for, the scholarships

2-11     and tuition exemptions provided for in this code; and

2-12                 (6)  for a public junior college established on or

2-13     after September 1, 1986, levy and collect ad valorem taxes as

2-14     provided by law for the operation and maintenance of the public

2-15     junior college.

2-16           SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with tuition and fees

2-17     charged for the 1997 fall semester.

2-18           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-19     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-20     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-21     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-22     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-23     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-24     passage, and it is so enacted.