SRC-JEC H.B. 1544 78(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Senate Research CenterH.B. 1544
78R10578 JSA-DBy: Bonnen (Janek)
Subcommittee on Higher Education
5/8/2003
Engrossed

DIGEST AND PURPOSE 

Currently, community colleges are well positioned to address the need for
readily available applied baccalaureate opportunities.  Their open-door
admission policies, low tuition costs, and convenient locations would
provide access to many more citizens wishing to pursue a bachelor's degree
in workforce training areas.  H.B. 1544 establishes a pilot project to
allow certain public junior colleges to offer limited baccalaureate
degrees in applied science and applied technology. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to
a state officer, institution, or agency. 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1.  Amends Subchapter A, Chapter 130, Education Code, by adding
Section 130.0012, as follows: 
 
Sec. 130.0012.  PILOT PROJECT:  BACCALAUREATE DEGREE PROGRAMS.  (a)
Requires the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) to
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. Provides that
participation in the pilot project does not otherwise alter the role and
mission of a public junior college. 
 
  (b)  Requires THECB to operate the pilot project at certain public
junior colleges. 

(c)  Requires a public junior college participating in the pilot project
to meet all applicable accreditation requirements of the Commission on
Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. 

(d)  Prohibits a public junior college participating in the pilot project
from offering more than five baccalaureate degree programs under the
project at any time.  Provides that the degree programs are subject to the
continuing approval of THECB.  Requires the junior college and THECB, in
determining what baccalaureate degree programs are to be offered, to
consider certain factors. 

(e)  Requires each public junior college that offers a baccalaureate
degree program under the pilot project to 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.  Authorizes THECB to 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)  Requires THECB, in its recommendations to the legislature relating to
state funding  for public junior colleges, to 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.  Requires THECB, 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, to 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.  Provides that 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)  Requires each public junior college participating in the pilot
project to prepare a biennial report on the operation and effectiveness of
the junior college's baccalaureate degree programs offered under the
project and to deliver a copy of the report to THECB in the form and at
the time determined by THECB. 
 
  (h)  Requires THECB, not later than January 1, 2009, to prepare a
progress report on the pilot project.  Requires THECB, not later than
January 1, 2011, to 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.
Requires THECB to 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)  Prohibits a public junior college, unless the authority to continue
offering the baccalaureate degree programs is continued by the
legislature, from performing certain acts. 

(j)  Requires THECB to 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 the nature of
the pilot project, including its limited duration, and the articulation
agreement entered into under Subsection (e) for the student's degree
program. 

  (k)  Provides that this section expires January 1, 2020.
 
SECTION 2.  Effective date:  upon passage or September 1, 2003.