By Price                                        H.B. No. 1686

      75R7435 T                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the repayment of certain teacher education loans.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subchapter M, Chapter 61, Education Code, is

 1-5     amended to read as follows:

 1-6           Sec. 61.702.  Eligibility.  (a)  To be eligible to receive

 1-7     repayment assistance, a teacher must:

 1-8                 (1)  apply to the coordinating board; and

 1-9                 (2)  have completed at least one year of employment in

1-10     an [the] elementary or secondary school [schools] of this state in

1-11     an area, [or] field or region with an [of] acute teacher shortage

1-12     as designated by the State Board for Educator Certification [of

1-13     Education].

1-14           (b)  The coordinating board may provide by rule for repayment

1-15     assistance on a pro rata basis for teachers employed full-time or

1-16     part-time in an elementary or secondary school of this state in an

1-17     area, [or] field or region with an [of] acute teacher shortage as

1-18     designated by the State Board for Educator Certification [of

1-19     Education].

1-20           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-21           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-1     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.