83R6710 JRJ-F
 
  By: Ellis S.B. No. 414
 
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to authorization by the Texas Higher Education
  Coordinating Board for certain public junior colleges to offer
  baccalaureate degree programs.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Section 130.0012, Education Code, is amended by
  amending Subsections (b) and (g) and adding Subsection (g-1) to
  read as follows:
         (b)  The coordinating board shall authorize baccalaureate
  degree programs at:
               (1)  each public junior college that previously
  participated in a pilot project to offer baccalaureate degree
  programs; and
               (2)  one or more public junior colleges that offer a
  degree program in the field of nursing if the public junior college
  is located in a county with a population greater than 3.3 million at
  the time the degree is initially offered.
         (g)  Except as provided by Subsection (g-1), in [In] its
  recommendations to the legislature relating to state funding for
  public junior colleges, the coordinating board shall recommend that
  a public junior college receive substantially the same state
  support for junior-level and senior-level courses offered under
  this section as that provided to a general academic teaching
  institution for substantially similar courses. In determining the
  contact hours attributable to students enrolled in a junior-level
  or senior-level course offered under this section used to determine
  a public junior college's proportionate share of state
  appropriations under Section 130.003, the coordinating board shall
  weigh those contact hours as necessary to provide the junior
  college the appropriate level of state support to the extent state
  funds for those courses are included in the appropriations.  This
  subsection does not prohibit the legislature from directly
  appropriating state funds to support junior-level and senior-level
  courses offered under this section.
         (g-1)  A degree program created under Subsection (b)(2) may
  be funded solely by a public junior college's proportionate share
  of state appropriations under Section 130.003, local funds, and
  private sources. This subsection does not require the legislature
  to appropriate state funds to support a degree program created
  under Subsection (b)(2).
         SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
  a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
  provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution.  If this
  Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
  Act takes effect September 1, 2013.