BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Research Center H.B. 101
81R22274 KEL-F By: Brown, Fred (Uresti)
AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
Currently, state law does not allow state funding for semester credit hours earned by an undergraduate student who attempts more than 30 credit hours in excess of the number of courses required to complete the student's degree program. This is particularly problematic for those students who earn dual credit and co-enrollment courses taken while in high school. Additionally, remedial, technical, or workforce education courses that are not mandatory toward the credit hours necessary for a degree program may also be problematic. The Education Code provides four specifically delineated exceptions to this restriction.
If a Texas resident student enters a university with a significant number of dual credit hours that were used to graduate from high school, the unforeseen consequence is that he or she will have to pay nonresident tuition before graduating.
H.B. 101 amends the Education Code to provide that semester credit hours earned by a student before graduating from high school and used to satisfy high school graduation requirements do not count toward the cap on the number of semester credit hours earned by a student that may be included in an institution of higher education's formula funding from the state.
H.B. 101 relates to the formula funding for public institutions of higher education for certain credit hours that do not count toward a degree.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Section 61.0595(d), Education Code, to provide that certain conditions are not counted for purposes of determining whether the student has previously earned the number of semester credit hours specified by Subsection (a) (relating to funding for certain undergraduate students), including semester credit hours earned by the student before graduating from high school and used to satisfy high school graduation requirements.
SECTION 2. Provides that the change in law made by this Act to Section 61.0595 (Funding for Certain Excess Undergraduate Credit Hours), Education Code, applies beginning with the funding recommendations made under Section 61.059 (Appropriations), Education Code, for the 2011-2012 academic year.
SECTION 3. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2009.