By Wohlgemuth                                         H.B. No. 1126
         76R5025 JSA-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to exempting certain institutions offering religious
 1-3     education from state regulation.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter G, Chapter 61, Education Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Section 61.3031 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 61.3031.  EXEMPTION FOR CERTAIN RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS.
 1-8     (a)  An institution that meets the requirements of this section is
 1-9     exempt from this subchapter and from any other regulation by an
1-10     agency or political subdivision of this state with respect to the
1-11     content or character of the educational programs of the
1-12     institution.
1-13           (b)  To be exempt under this section, an institution must:
1-14                 (1)  be organized as or operated by a nonprofit
1-15     corporation under the Texas Non-Profit Corporation Act (Article
1-16     1396-1.01 et seq., Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes);
1-17                 (2)  be under the direction of a stewardship board or
1-18     corporate board of directors;
1-19                 (3)  offer degrees solely for the purpose of
1-20     ministerial and religious training;
1-21                 (4)  include in the institution's course catalog a
1-22     statement describing the religious training purpose or purposes of
1-23     the institution; and
1-24                 (5)  ensure that each course for which the institution
 2-1     grants credit toward a degree has a religious purpose that is
 2-2     described in the institution's course catalog.
 2-3           (c)  To be exempt under this section, an institution must be
 2-4     operated as an independent institution or in conjunction with a
 2-5     local organization whose primary purpose is to maintain and operate
 2-6     a church, synagogue, temple, mosque, or other place of worship.
 2-7           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-8     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-9     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-10     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-11     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-12     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-13     passage, and it is so enacted.