By Morrison, et al.                                   H.B. No. 1804
         76R8556 KEL-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the automatic admission to certain public institutions
 1-3     of higher education of certain graduates of high schools operated
 1-4     by the United States Department of Defense.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 51.803(a), Education Code, is amended to
 1-7     read as follows:
 1-8           (a)  Each general academic teaching institution shall admit
 1-9     an applicant for admission to the institution as an undergraduate
1-10     student if the applicant graduated with a grade point average in
1-11     the top 10 percent of the student's high school graduating class in
1-12     one of the two school years preceding the academic year for which
1-13     the applicant is applying for admission and the applicant graduated
1-14     from a public or private high school in this state accredited by a
1-15     generally recognized accrediting organization or from a high school
1-16     operated by the United States Department of Defense [with a grade
1-17     point average in the top 10 percent of the student's high school
1-18     graduating class].  To qualify for admission under this section, an
1-19     applicant must submit an application before the expiration of any
1-20     application filing deadline established by the institution and, if
1-21     the applicant graduated from a high school operated by the United
1-22     States Department of Defense, must be a Texas resident under
1-23     Section 54.052 or be entitled to pay tuition fees at the rate
1-24     provided for Texas residents under Section 54.058(d) for the term
 2-1     or semester to which admitted.
 2-2           SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies
 2-3     beginning with admissions for the 2000 fall semester.
 2-4           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-5     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-6     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-7     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-8     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.