By Kamel                                        H.B. No. 1733

      75R5282 JSA-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to courses and programs at public junior colleges that do

 1-3     not receive state funding.

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

 1-5           SECTION 1.   Subchapter A, Chapter 130, Education Code, is

 1-6     amended by adding Section 130.0065 to read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 130.0065.  COURSE OR PROGRAM SUPPORTED EXCLUSIVELY BY

 1-8     LOCAL FUNDS.  (a)  The governing board of a junior college district

 1-9     may establish a course or a degree or certificate program that is

1-10     funded exclusively by:

1-11                 (1)  tuition and fees from students registered for the

1-12     course or for a course held as part of the program; and

1-13                 (2)  other funds, including gifts or grants, available

1-14     to the board from sources other than state appropriations.

1-15           (b)  The costs of conducting a course established under this

1-16     section or conducted as part of a program established under this

1-17     section may not be paid for in whole or in part from state

1-18     appropriations.  Contact hours of students registered in the course

1-19     shall be excluded from the contact hours used to allocate state

1-20     appropriations to the junior college district under Section

1-21     130.003.

1-22           (c)  A course or program may be established under this

1-23     section without the approval of the Texas Higher Education

1-24     Coordinating Board under Subchapter B, Chapter 61.  As long as the

 2-1     course or program is funded exclusively as provided by Subsection

 2-2     (a), the course or program is not subject to the continuing

 2-3     approval of the coordinating board.

 2-4           (d)  For purposes of this section, a core curriculum course

 2-5     or other course not established primarily to support a program

 2-6     established under this section that a student takes while enrolled

 2-7     in the program is not considered to be part of the program and is

 2-8     not excluded from funding on the basis of contact hours under

 2-9     Section 130.003.

2-10           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-11     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-12     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-13     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-14     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-15     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-16     passage, and it is so enacted.