Amend SB 297 by adding the following appropriately numbered SECTIONS to the bill and renumbering subsequent SECTIONS of the bill accordingly: SECTION ____. Section 54.203, Education Code, is amended by adding Subsection (b-2) to read as follows: (b-2) The governing board of an institution of higher education shall exempt from the payment of resident tuition at the institution a dependent child, including a stepchild, of a member of the Armed Forces of the United States who is a resident of this state or is entitled to pay resident tuition under this subchapter, for any semester or other academic term during which the member of the armed forces is deployed on active duty for the purpose of engaging in a combative military operation outside the United States. SECTION ____. Section 54.203(b-2), Education Code, as added by this Act, applies beginning with tuition charged for the 2009 fall semester. Tuition charged for an academic period before that semester are covered by the law in effect immediately before the effective date of this Act, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.