1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to prepaid tuition for graduate and professional degree
 1-3     programs at 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 or private or independent institution of higher
1-12     education, if the board determines that:
1-13                 (1)  a particular plan is feasible; and
1-14                 (2)  there is sufficient demand for the plan to justify
1-15     administration of the plan.
1-16           (b)  The board may limit a plan established under this
1-17     section to a specified field or fields of study, to a specified
1-18     level or type of degree, or to a specified number of hours or
1-19     semesters, as the board considers appropriate.
1-20           (c)  The board is not required to continue offering a plan
1-21     established under this section in subsequent years.
1-22           (d)  The board may modify the terms of a prepaid tuition
1-23     contract otherwise required by this subchapter for a plan
1-24     established under this section as the board considers necessary.
 2-1           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-2     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-3     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-4     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-5     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 2-6     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 2-7     passage, and it is so enacted.
         _______________________________     _______________________________
             President of the Senate              Speaker of the House
               I certify that H.B. No. 2555 was passed by the House on April
         22, 1999, by a non-record vote; and that the House concurred in
         Senate amendments to H.B. No. 2555 on May 13, 1999, by a non-record
         vote.
                                             _______________________________
                                                 Chief Clerk of the House
               I certify that H.B. No. 2555 was passed by the Senate, with
         amendments, on May 11, 1999, by the following vote:  Yeas 30, Nays
         0.
                                             _______________________________
                                                 Secretary of the Senate
         APPROVED:  _____________________
                            Date
                    _____________________
                          Governor