BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 93

By: Van de Putte

Higher Education

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The purpose of the Hazelwood tuition exemption is to provide an education benefit to honorably discharged or separated Texas veterans by exempting those veterans from the payment of tuition and certain fees at state colleges. In 2005 and 2006, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott issued two opinions in which he stated that, in order to receive exemption benefits, an eligible veteran must have been a U.S. citizen and a legal Texas resident at the time he or she entered service. The attorney general withdrew his opinion the following year because the opinion would have rendered the Hazelwood Act unconstitutional. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board responded to the attorney general's withdrawal by adopting temporary rules to provide that a veteran is eligible for the tuition exemption regardless of whether the veteran was a U.S. citizen or legal resident at the time he or she entered the military in Texas. Legislation is needed to align the Hazelwood Act with the rules adopted by the coordinating board and the federal G.I. Bill.

S.B. 93 revises the residency requirements that specified military personnel or their children must meet to qualify for tuition and fee exemptions at institutions of higher education. The bill establishes who is considered the child of another person for purposes of the exemption.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

S.B. 93 amends the Education Code to include in the exemptions for certain military personnel at public institutions of higher education the payment of tuition and other required charges, in addition to dues and fees. The bill requires that the person seeking the exemption entered the service at a location in Texas, declared Texas as the person's home of record in the manner provided by the applicable military or other service, or was determined to be a resident of Texas for purposes of provisions relating to tuition rates at the time the person entered the service. The bill removes the requirement that the person seeking the exemption was a citizen of Texas at the time the person entered the service and had resided in Texas for at least the period of 12 months before the date of registration and makes a change that conforms to the removal.

S.B. 93 establishes that a person who received an exemption before the 2009-2010 academic year under state law regarding tuition exemptions at public institutions of higher education continues to be eligible for the exemption as that law existed on January 1, 2009, subject to the other provisions of the law and this bill other than the requirement that the person must have entered the service at a location in Texas, declared Texas as the person's home of record, or would have been determined to be a resident of Texas for purposes of provisions concerning tuition rates at the time the person entered the service.

S.B. 93 requires a child of certain members of the U.S. armed forces, to qualify for a tuition and fee exemption, to be classified as a resident under provisions relating to tuition rates on the date of the child's registration, rather than to be a citizen of Texas and have resided in Texas for at least 12 months immediately preceding the date of registration. The bill establishes that, for the purposes of provisions relating to exemptions from tuition and fees, a person is the child of another person if the person is the stepchild or the biological or adopted child of the other person or if the other person claimed the person as a dependent on a federal income tax return filed for the preceding year or will claim the person as a dependent on a federal income tax return for the current year.

S.B. 93 makes its provisions applicable beginning with tuition and fees for the 2009 fall semester and requires an institution of higher education to refund to a student who becomes eligible for an exemption in that semester and who has paid the tuition and other fees for that semester the amount of the tuition and fees paid by the student in the amount of the exemption.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the act does not receive the necessary vote, the act takes effect September 1, 2009.