| TO: | Honorable Royce West, Chair, Senate Committee on S/C on Higher Education |
| FROM: | John S. O'Brien, Deputy Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | SB1701 by Averitt (Relating to tuition and fee rebates for timely completion of degree programs offered by general academic teaching institutions.), As Introduced |
The bill amends education Code by adding Section 54.0061 and repeals Section 54.0065. The bill would entitle an undergraduate student to a tuition and fee rebate if the student meets the eligibility criteria. The eligibility criteria includes enrolling in a general academic teaching institution as a first-time freshman in the first fall semester after graduation from high school, remaining continuously enrolled until graduation, be ign a resident of the state of Texas, and be awarded a baccalaureate degree by the fourth anniversary of the date that the student first enrolled if the student was enrolled in a four-year degree program. If the student were enrolled in a degree program of any other length, the time limit would be established by the general academic teaching institution.
The amount of the rebate would be the difference between the total amount of tuition and compulsory fees paid by the student while enrolled in the institution and the total amount the student would have paid during that period if the student paid tuition at the rate of tuition compulsory fees in effect for the first full semester that the student enrolled at the institution. The institution would be required to fund the rebate from local funds or institutional fund set aside.
The first group of eligible students would be those enrolling in general academic teaching institutions in Summer 2005 (fiscal yesr 2006). These students would not qualify for the rebate until they graduated four years later, in May 2009 (fiscal year 2010). The institutions will begin expending local funds for these rebates to students in fiscal year 2010, but would not be eligible to ask for an adjustment to their general revenue appropriations until the 2012-13 legislative session. Therefore, any general revenue impact on the higher education institutions will occur outside the purview of this fiscal note.
| Source Agencies: | 720 The University of Texas System Administration, 758 Board of Regents, Texas State University System Central Office, 763 University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, 768 Texas Tech University System Administration, 781 Higher Education Coordinating Board, 783 University of Houston System Administration
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| LBB Staff: | JOB, CT, RT, GO
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