By Dunnam                                             H.B. No. 2867
         76R5355 CAG-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to a program that allows institutions of higher education
 1-3     in Texas to match a scholarship offered to Texas students by
 1-4     out-of-state institutions.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 61, Education Code, is
 1-7     amended by adding Section 61.086 to read as follows:
 1-8           Sec. 61.086.  MATCHING SCHOLARSHIPS TO RETAIN STUDENTS IN
 1-9     TEXAS.  (a)  The board shall adopt rules that allow an institution
1-10     of higher education to use any funds appropriated to the
1-11     institution or that the institution may use for  the award of
1-12     scholarships or grants to match, in whole or in part, any
1-13     nonathletic scholarship or grant offer, including an offer of the
1-14     payment of tuition, fees, room and board, or a stipend, received by
1-15     a graduate of a Texas public or private high school from an
1-16     out-of-state institution of higher education.
1-17           (b)  The board shall:
1-18                 (1)  encourage private or independent institutions of
1-19     higher education to direct available scholarship funds to match
1-20     scholarship or grant offers by out-of-state institutions as
1-21     described by Subsection (a); and
1-22                 (2)  give preferences in awarding tuition equalization
1-23     grants under Subchapter F to students who receive a scholarship or
1-24     grant offer from an out-of-state institution.
 2-1           (c)  In adopting rules under this section, the board may not
 2-2     require an institution to match a scholarship or grant offer.
 2-3           SECTION 2.  (a)  The Texas Higher Education Coordinating
 2-4     Board shall adopt rules relating to matching scholarships as
 2-5     provided by Section 61.086, Education Code, as added by this Act,
 2-6     not later than September 1, 1999.
 2-7           (b)  Not later than December 31, 2000, the Texas Higher
 2-8     Education Coordinating Board shall report on the initial
 2-9     implementation of this Act.  The report shall include a description
2-10     of the number of Texas high school students who leave the state to
2-11     attend out-of-state institutions of higher education and a
2-12     description of any method used to retain Texas students at Texas
2-13     institutions of higher education.  The coordinating board shall
2-14     deliver the report to the presiding officer of the standing
2-15     committee on higher education in each house of the legislature.
2-16           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-17     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-18     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-19     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-20     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-21     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-22     passage, and it is so enacted.