1-1     By:  Fraser                                            S.B. No. 608
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed February 18, 1999; February 22, 1999,
 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Education;
 1-4     March 11, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 7,
 1-5     Nays 0; March 11, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to exempting certain military personnel from the
 1-9     requirements of the Texas Academic Skills Program.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Subsection (r), Section 51.306, Education Code,
1-12     is amended to read as follows:
1-13           (r)  This section does not apply to:
1-14                 (1)  a student who accumulated three or more
1-15     college-level semester credit hours prior to the 1989 fall
1-16     semester;
1-17                 (2)  a student located outside this state who enrolls
1-18     in a course offered  outside this state by an institution of higher
1-19     education;
1-20                 (3)  a deaf student;
1-21                 (4)  a student who has graduated with a baccalaureate
1-22     degree from an institution of higher education, an accredited
1-23     private or independent institution of higher education, or an
1-24     accredited out-of-state institution of higher education;
1-25                 (5)  a student enrolled in a certificate program at a
1-26     community or technical college of one year or less; or
1-27                 (6)  a student who is [a citizen of a country other
1-28     than the United  States and is] not seeking a degree and who:
1-29                       (A)  is a citizen of a country other than the
1-30     United States; or
1-31                       (B)  is serving on active duty as a member of the
1-32     United States armed forces.
1-33           SECTION 2.  Subsection (g), Section 51.3061, Education Code,
1-34     is amended to read as follows:
1-35           (g)  This section does not apply to a student who:
1-36                 (1)  is enrolled in a certificate program of one year
1-37     or less; or
1-38                 (2)  is serving on active duty as a member of the
1-39     United States armed forces and is not seeking a degree.
1-40           SECTION 3.  The change in law made by this Act takes effect
1-41     beginning with the 1999 fall semester.
1-42           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-43     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-44     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-45     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-46     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-47     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-48     passage, and it is so enacted.
1-49                                  * * * * *