HBA-SEP H.B. 3050 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3050 By: Rangel Higher Education 3/26/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Community and technical colleges constitute the largest sector of higher education in Texas, accounting for an enrollment of over 430,000 students or 45 percent of the total student enrollment. However, community and technical college students only received approximately 14 percent of the total allocation of Toward EXcellence, Access, & Success (TEXAS) grant funds for the fiscal year 2000. With 70 percent of the state's freshman and sophomore students, and 75 percent of the state's minority freshman and sophomore students attending community and technical colleges, it may be important to develop an additional method to assist these students in completing their educational goals. House Bill 3050 establishes the Toward EXcellence, Access, & Success (TEXAS) II grant program to provide grants to enable eligible students to attend public junior colleges and technical institutes in this state. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that rulemaking authority is expressly delegated to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in SECTION 1 (Sections 56.353 and 56.357, Education Code) and in SECTION 2 of this bill. ANALYSIS House Bill 3050 amends the Education Code to establish the Toward EXcellence, Access, & Success (TEXAS) II grant program to provide grants to enable eligible students to attend public junior colleges and technical institutes in this state (Sec. 56.352). The bill requires the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (board) to administer the TEXAS II grant program and to adopt any rules necessary to implement the program. The board is also required to consult with the student financial aid officers of eligible institutions in developing the rules and to adopt rules to provide a TEXAS II grant to an eligible student enrolled in an eligible institution in a manner consistent with the administration of federal student financial aid programs. In determining who should receive a TEXAS II grant, the board and the eligible institution are required to give the highest priority to students who demonstrate the greatest financial need (Sec. 56.353). The bill sets forth eligibility requirements and continued eligibility and academic performance requirements for a TEXAS II grant (Sec. 56.354 and 56.355). A person receiving a TEXAS II grant may use the money to pay any usual and customary cost of attendance at an eligible institution incurred by the student. The institution may disburse all or part of the proceeds of a TEXAS II grant to an eligible person only if the tuition and required fees incurred by the person at the institution have been paid (Sec. 56.356). The amount of a TEXAS II grant for a student enrolled full-time at a public technical institute or junior college is the amount determined by the board as the average statewide amount of tuition and required fees that a resident student enrolled full-time in an associate degree or certificate program would be charged for that semester or term at public technical institutes or public junior colleges. The bill authorizes the board to adopt rules that allow the board to increase or decrease, in proportion to the number of semester credit hours in which a student is enrolled, the amount of a TEXAS II grant award to a student who is enrolled in a number of semester credit hours in excess of or below the number of semester credit hours necessary for eligibility. The bill prohibits the amount of a TEXAS II grant from being reduced by any gift aid for which the person receiving the grant is eligible, unless the total amount of a person's grant plus any gift aid received exceeds the total cost of attendance at an eligible institution. Not later than January 31 of each year, the board is required to publish the amounts of each grant established by the board for the academic year beginning the next fall semester. The total amount of grants that a student is authorized to receive for a TEXAS II grant and a tuition equalization grant is prohibited from exceeding an amount equal to 50 percent of the average state appropriation in the biennium preceding the biennium in which the grant is made for a full-time student or the equivalent at public senior colleges and universities, as determined by the board. An eligible institution is prohibited from charging a person attending the institution who also receives a TEXAS II grant an amount of tuition and required fees in excess of the amount of the TEXAS II grant received by the person or from denying admission to or enrollment in the institution based on a person's eligibility to receive a TEXAS II grant or a person's receipt of a TEXAS II grant. An institution is authorized to use other available sources of financial aid to cover any difference in the amount of a TEXAS II grant and the actual amount of tuition and required fees (Sec. 56.357). The bill requires the board and eligible institutions to award TEXAS II scholarships beginning with the 2001 fall semester. The bill requires the board to adopt the initial rules for awarding TEXAS II grants no later than July 31, 2001 (SECTION 2). EFFECTIVE DATE On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2001.