By Cuellar                                            H.B. No. 2555
         76R5233 JSA-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to prepaid tuition for graduate and professional degree
 1-3     programs at public institutions of higher education.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter F, Chapter 54, Education Code, is
 1-6     amended by adding Section 54.6245 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 54.6245.  GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL DEGREE PLANS.  (a)
 1-8     The board may establish one or more plans to allow a person to
 1-9     prepay all or part of the tuition and required fees for enrollment
1-10     in a graduate or professional degree program at an institution of
1-11     higher education, if the board determines that:
1-12                 (1)  a particular plan is feasible; and
1-13                 (2)  there is sufficient demand for the plan to justify
1-14     administration of the plan.
1-15           (b)  The board may limit a plan established under this
1-16     section to a specified field or fields of study, to a specified
1-17     level or type of degree, or to a specified number of hours or
1-18     semesters, as the board considers appropriate.
1-19           (c)  The board is not required to continue offering a plan
1-20     established under this section in subsequent years.
1-21           (d)  The board may modify the terms of a prepaid tuition
1-22     contract otherwise required by this subchapter for a plan
1-23     established under this section as the board considers necessary.
1-24           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-1     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-2     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-3     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-4     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 2-5     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 2-6     passage, and it is so enacted.