By:  Ratliff, Zaffirini                       S.B. No. 961

         97S0682/1                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to state formula funding to an institution of higher

 1-2     education and tuition costs for certain resident doctoral students.

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

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 54.066, Education Code, is amended to

 1-5     read as follows:

 1-6           Sec. 54.066.  TUITION RATES FOR CERTAIN DOCTORAL STUDENTS.

 1-7     The governing board of an institution of higher education may

 1-8     charge a resident doctoral student who has more semester credit

 1-9     hours of doctoral work than allowed for purposes of state funding

1-10     for the current state fiscal biennium under Section 61.059(l)

1-11     tuition at the rate charged nonresident doctoral students.

1-12           SECTION 2.  Subsection (l), Section 61.059, Education Code,

1-13     is amended to read as follows:

1-14           (l)  The board may not include in any formula under this

1-15     section funding based on the number of doctoral students who have a

1-16     total of 100 [131] or more semester credit hours of doctoral work

1-17     at an institution of higher education.

1-18           SECTION 3.  (a)  The change in law made by Section 1 of this

1-19     Act applies beginning with the 1997 fall semester.  For the

1-20     1997-1998 and 1998-1999 academic years, the number of semester

1-21     credit hours in excess of which Section 54.066, Education Code, as

1-22     amended by this Act, allows an institution to charge tuition at the

1-23     nonresident rate is 131 semester credit hours.

 2-1           (b)  Subsection (l), Section 61.059, Education Code, as

 2-2     amended by this Act, applies only to formulas established under

 2-3     Section 61.059, Education Code, for fiscal years that begin on or

 2-4     after September 1, 1999.

 2-5           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-6     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-7     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-8     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-9     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-10     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-11     passage, and it is so enacted.