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 law [Section 54.051 of this code, except, however, the
1-19 governing board of a public junior college district may waive the
1-20 difference in the rate of tuition for nonresident and resident
1-21 students for a person, and his dependents, who owns property which
1-22 is subject to ad valorem taxation by the junior college district];
1-23 (5) grant, when properly applied for, the scholarships
1-24 and tuition exemptions provided for in this code; and
2-1 (6) for a public junior college established on or
2-2 after September 1, 1986, levy and collect ad valorem taxes as
2-3 provided by law for the operation and maintenance of the public
2-4 junior college.
2-5 SECTION 2. Subchapter A, Chapter 130, Education Code, is
2-6 amended by adding Section 130.0032 to read as follows:
2-7 Sec. 130.0032. TUITION FOR STUDENTS RESIDING OUTSIDE OF
2-8 DISTRICT. (a) The governing board of a public junior college
2-9 district may allow a person who resides outside the district and
2-10 who owns property subject to ad valorem taxation by the district,
2-11 or a dependent of the person, to pay tuition at the rate applicable
2-12 to a student who resides in the district.
2-13 (b) The governing board of a public junior college district
2-14 may allow a person who resides outside the district and in the
2-15 taxing district of a contiguous public junior college district to
2-16 pay tuition and fees at the rate applicable to a student who
2-17 resides in the district.
2-18 (c) The governing board of a public junior college district
2-19 may allow a person who resides outside the district to pay tuition
2-20 and fees at a rate less than the rate applicable to other persons
2-21 residing outside the district, but not less than the rate
2-22 applicable to a student who resides in the district, if the person:
2-23 (1) resides within the service area of the district;
2-24 (2) does not reside in an independent school district
2-25 that meets the criteria of the coordinating board for the
2-26 establishment of a junior college district under Section 130.013;
2-27 and
3-1 (3) demonstrates financial need in accordance with
3-2 rules adopted by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
3-3 SECTION 3. This Act applies beginning with tuition and fees
3-4 charged for the 1997 fall semester.
3-5 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
3-6 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-7 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-8 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-9 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-10 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-11 passage, and it is so enacted.
_______________________________ _______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 1548 was passed by the House on April
22, 1997, by the following vote: Yeas 140, Nays 0, 2 present, not
voting; and that the House concurred in Senate amendments to H.B.
No. 1548 on May 28, 1997, by the following vote: Yeas 135, Nays 0,
1 present, not voting.
_______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 1548 was passed by the Senate, with
amendments, on May 20, 1997, by the following vote: Yeas 31, Nays
0.
_______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
APPROVED: _____________________
Date
_____________________
Governor