1-1     By:  Ellis                                             S.B. No. 315
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed January 29, 1999; February 2, 1999,
 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Education;
 1-4     March 4, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 8,
 1-5     Nays 0; March 4, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to authorizing certain prepaid tuition contracts to cover
 1-9     tuition for an additional period of attendance at an institution of
1-10     higher education.
1-11           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12           SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 54.6252, Education Code,
1-13     is amended to read as follows:
1-14           (a)  The board may permit the purchaser of a prepaid tuition
1-15     contract for a senior college plan or a private college plan at any
1-16     time during which the contract is in effect and before the
1-17     beneficiary graduates from high school to enter into a supplemental
1-18     contract to prepay the tuition and required fees of the beneficiary
1-19     for a number of undergraduate credit hours, in addition to the
1-20     undergraduate credit hours included in the primary contract, equal
1-21     to the number of credit hours purchased for one year under the
1-22     primary contract.  The additional credit hours must be for the same
1-23     type of institution as the credit hours purchased under the primary
1-24     contract.
1-25           SECTION 2.  (a)  Except as provided by Subsection (b) of this
1-26     section, the amendment made by this Act to Section 54.6252,
1-27     Education Code, does not apply to a prepaid tuition contract
1-28     entered into before the effective date of this Act.
1-29           (b)  The Prepaid Higher Education Tuition Board may permit
1-30     the purchaser of a prepaid tuition contract entered into before the
1-31     effective date of this Act to amend the contract to conform to
1-32     Section 54.6252, Education Code, as amended by this Act.  The board
1-33     may require the purchaser to make increased or additional payments
1-34     as necessary to compensate for any additional costs that the board
1-35     estimates will be incurred under the contract because of the
1-36     contract amendment.
1-37           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-38           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-39     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-40     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-41     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-42     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-43                                  * * * * *