BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 2448

By: Turner, Sylvester

Higher Education

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Interested parties note that, in some instances, students are required to pay out-of-district tuition and fees to attend a junior college that is within their taxing district due to the way junior college district lines are drawn and that their only alternative is to attend a junior college that is farther away, but within their district. This issue is starker in areas known as super neighborhoods, where district boundary lines can result in a student on one side of a street paying higher tuition and fees than neighbors on the other side of the street.

H.B. 2448 seeks to address this issue by allowing residents of a super neighborhood who live outside the district lines of a public junior college, but within the taxing district, to pay tuition and fees at the rate applicable to a student residing inside the district.

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

H.B. 2448 amends the Education Code to require the governing board of a public junior college district to allow a person who resides outside the district and in the taxing district of a contiguous public junior college district to pay tuition and fees at the rate applicable to a student who resides in the district for enrollment at a campus located within an area in which the person resides that is designated as a super neighborhood by a municipality with a population greater than two million.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2013.