BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 566

By: Eltife

Higher Education

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

According to interested parties, established pharmacy schools in Texas number in the single digits and the number of applicants to these schools outstrips the available seats by a wide margin. It has been reported, meanwhile, that there is a steady demand for pharmacists that is not being met. S.B. 566 seeks to satisfy a portion of this demand by creating a self-supporting pharmacy school at The University of Texas at Tyler, with the goal of admitting the first class in 2015.

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. 566 amends the Education Code to authorize the board of regents of The University of Texas System to establish and maintain a pharmacy school as a professional school of The University of Texas at Tyler. The bill authorizes the board to prescribe courses leading to customary degrees offered at other leading American schools of pharmacy and to award those degrees. The bill requires the board to provide for the operations and capital expenses of the school to be supported by tuition, gifts, grants, and other institutional or system funds available for that purpose but provides that the school is ineligible for state higher education funding under the formulas established for instruction, operations, or infrastructure.

EFFECTIVE DATE

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