BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 579

                                                                                                                                By: Van de Putte

Defense Affairs and State-Federal Relations

                                                                                                        Committee Report (unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Currently, in order to be eligible for a Texas B-On-Time loan, a student must be a Texas resident and must have graduated from a Texas high school.  Unfortunately this leaves out our military dependents who have recently moved to Texas, after graduating from a school operated by the Department of Defense.

SB 579 addresses this issue by allowing military dependents, who graduated from DoD schools and are entitled to pay in-state tuition at Texas universities, to be eligible for Texas B-On-Time loans.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in SECTION 2 of this bill. 

ANALYSIS

This bill extends the Texas residency requirement for Texas B-On-Time loans to include military dependents who are entitled to pay tuition at the rate provided for residents of this state under Section 54.058.  This bill also allows certain graduates of a Department of Defense high school to be eligible for the loans.

EFFECTIVE DATE

This Act will take effect immediately if it receives the necessary vote, otherwise it will take effect September 1, 2005.