1-1     By:  Ratliff, Zaffirini                                S.B. No. 961

 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 5, 1997; March 10, 1997, read

 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Finance; April 18, 1997,

 1-4     reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 11, Nays 0;

 1-5     April 18, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to state formula funding to an institution of higher

 1-9     education and tuition costs for certain resident doctoral students.

1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 54.066, Education Code, is amended to

1-12     read as follows:

1-13           Sec. 54.066.  TUITION RATES FOR CERTAIN DOCTORAL STUDENTS.

1-14     The governing board of an institution of higher education may

1-15     charge a resident doctoral student who has more semester credit

1-16     hours of doctoral work than allowed for purposes of state funding

1-17     for the current state fiscal biennium under Section 61.059(l)

1-18     tuition at the rate charged nonresident doctoral students.

1-19           SECTION 2.  Subsection (l), Section 61.059, Education Code,

1-20     is amended to read as follows:

1-21           (l)  The board may not include in any formula under this

1-22     section funding based on the number of doctoral students who have a

1-23     total of 100 [131] or more semester credit hours of doctoral work

1-24     at an institution of higher education.

1-25           SECTION 3.  (a)  The change in law made by Section 1 of this

1-26     Act applies beginning with the 1997 fall semester.  For the

1-27     1997-1998 and 1998-1999 academic years, the number of semester

1-28     credit hours in excess of which Section 54.066, Education Code, as

1-29     amended by this Act, allows an institution to charge tuition at the

1-30     nonresident rate is 131 semester credit hours.

1-31           (b)  Subsection (l), Section 61.059, Education Code, as

1-32     amended by this Act, applies only to formulas established under

1-33     Section 61.059, Education Code, for fiscal years that begin on or

1-34     after September 1, 1999.

1-35           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-36     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-37     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-38     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-39     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-40     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-41     passage, and it is so enacted.

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