BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 1839

By: Phillips

Higher Education

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Interested parties note that a career school or college is defined in part as a business that offers or maintains a course or courses of instruction or study, a course is defined as an identifiable unit of instruction that is part of a program of instruction, and a program of instruction is defined as a postsecondary program of organized instruction or study that may lead to an academic, professional, or vocational degree, certificate, or other recognized educational credential. According to the parties, a lack of clarity regarding those definitions, as they relate to the Texas Workforce Commission's (TWC) authority to grant certain exemptions, has led the TWC to seek licensure of career schools that teach certain recreational classes.  C.S.H.B. 1839 seeks to exclude a provider of certain avocational or recreational classes that do not lead to an educational credential from regulation as a career school or college.

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

C.S.H.B. 1839 amends the Education Code to make provisions of law relating to career schools and colleges inapplicable to a school or training program that offers only avocational or recreational instruction or teacher instruction for the following subjects: dance; music; martial arts; yoga; physical fitness; horseback riding; riflery or other weapon use; sewing, knitting, or other needlecrafts; or sports.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2011.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 1839 contains a provision not included in the original making provisions of law relating to career schools and colleges inapplicable to a school or training program that offers only avocational or recreational instruction or teacher instruction in certain specified subjects. The substitute omits a provision included in the original redefining "career school or college" to specify that the course or courses of instruction or study offered or maintained by a business enterprise be part of a program of instruction or, alternatively, that the course or courses of instruction or study available at the place of business through classroom instruction or by distance education, or both, be part of a program of instruction.