Amend CSSB 1952 by inserting the following appropriately 
numbered SECTION and renumbering the other SECTIONS of the bill 
accordingly:
	SECTION _____  Subchapter A, Chapter 130, Education Code, is 
amended by adding Section 130.0012 to read as follows:
	Sec. 130.0012.  PILOT PROJECT:  BACCALAUREATE DEGREE 
PROGRAMS.  (a)  The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board shall 
establish a pilot project to examine the feasibility and 
effectiveness of authorizing public junior colleges to offer 
baccalaureate degree programs in the fields of applied science and 
applied technology.  Participation in the pilot project does not 
otherwise alter the role and mission of a public junior college:
	(b)  The coordinating board shall operate the pilot project 
at the following public junior colleges:
		(1)  Brazosport College;                                               
		(2)  El Centro College of the Dallas County Community 
College District;
		(3)  Midland College;                                                  
		(4)  North Harris Montgomery Community College 
District; and         
		(5)  South Texas Community College.                                    
	(c)  A public junior college participating in the pilot 
project must meet all applicable accreditation requirements of the 
Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and 
Schools.
	(d)  A public junior college participating in the pilot 
project may not offer more than five baccalaureate degree programs 
under the project at any time.  The degree programs are subject to 
the continuing approval of the coordinating board.  In determining 
what baccalaureate degree programs are to be offered, the junior 
college and the coordinating board shall consider:
		(1)  the need for the degree programs in the region 
served by the junior college;
		(2)  how those degree programs would complement the 
other programs and course offerings of the junior college;
		(3)  whether those degree programs would unnecessarily 
duplicate the degree programs offered by other institutions of 
higher education; and
		(4)  the ability of the junior college to support the 
program and the adequacy of the junior college's facilities, 
faculty, administration, libraries, and other resources.
	(e)  Each public junior college that offers a baccalaureate 
degree program under the pilot project must enter into an 
articulation agreement with one or more general academic teaching 
institutions to ensure that students enrolled in the degree program 
have an opportunity to complete the degree if the public junior 
college ceases to offer the degree program.  The coordinating board 
may require a general academic teaching institution that offers a 
comparable degree program to enter into an articulation agreement 
with the public junior college as provided by this subsection.
	(f)  In its recommendations to the legislature relating to 
state funding for public junior colleges, the coordinating board 
shall recommend that a public junior college receive substantially 
the same state support for junior-level and senior-level courses 
offered under the pilot project as that provided to a general 
academic teaching institution for substantially similar courses.  
In determining the contact hours attributable to students enrolled 
in a junior-level or senior-level course offered under the pilot 
project used to determine a public junior college's proportionate 
share of state appropriations under Section 130.003, the 
coordinating board shall weigh those contact hours as necessary to 
provide the junior college the appropriate level of state support 
to the extent state funds for those courses are included in the 
appropriations.  This subsection does not prohibit the legislature 
from directly appropriating state funds to support junior-level and 
senior-level courses offered under the pilot project.
	(g)  Each public junior college participating in the pilot 
project shall prepare a biennial report on the operation and 
effectiveness of the junior college's baccalaureate degree 
programs offered under the project and shall deliver a copy of the 
report to the coordinating board in the form and at the time 
determined by the coordinating board.
	(h)  Not later than January 1, 2009, the coordinating board 
shall prepare a progress report on the pilot project.  Not later 
than January 1, 2011, the coordinating board shall prepare a report 
on the effectiveness of the pilot project, including any 
recommendations for legislative action regarding the offering of 
baccalaureate degree programs by public junior colleges.  The 
coordinating board shall deliver a copy of each report to the 
governor, the lieutenant governor, the speaker of the house of 
representatives, and the chair of the standing committee of each 
house of the legislature with primary jurisdiction over higher 
education.
	(i)  Unless the authority to continue offering the 
baccalaureate degree programs is continued by the legislature, a 
public junior college may not:
		(1)  enroll a new student in a baccalaureate degree 
program under the pilot project after the 2011 fall semester;
		(2)  offer junior-level or senior-level courses for 
those degree programs after the 2015 fall semester, unless the 
coordinating board authorizes the college to offer those courses; 
or
		(3)  award a baccalaureate degree under the pilot 
project after the 2015 fall semester, unless the coordinating board 
approves the awarding of the degree.
	(j)  The coordinating board shall prescribe procedures to 
ensure that each public junior college that offers a degree program 
under the pilot project informs each student who enrolls in the 
degree program of:
		(1)  the nature of the pilot project, including the 
limited duration of the project; and
		(2)  the articulation agreement entered into under 
Subsection (e) for the student's degree program.
	(k)  This section expires January 1, 2020.