78R10578 JSA-D
By: Bonnen, Flores, Mercer H.B. No. 1544
Substitute the following for H.B. No. 1544:
By: Jones of Dallas C.S.H.B. No. 1544
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to a pilot project to allow select public junior colleges
to offer certain baccalaureate degrees.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. 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.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2003.