By: Seliger S.B. No. 778

(In the Senate - Filed February 25, 2015; March 2, 2015, read first time and referred to Committee on Higher Education; April 13, 2015, reported adversely, with favorable Committee Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 5, Nays 1; April 13, 2015, sent to printer.) Click here to see the committee vote

COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 778 By: Watson

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to performance-based tuition limitations for certain public institutions of higher education.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Subchapter B, Chapter 54, Education Code, is amended by adding Section 54.05131 to read as follows:

Sec. 54.05131. PERFORMANCE-BASED DESIGNATED TUITION LIMITATIONS. (a) In this section:

(1) "Administrative costs" means the percentage of an institution's operating budget expended on institutional expenses, as designated in an institution's annual financial reports in the subcategories of executive management, fiscal operations, general administrative and logistical services, administrative computing support, and public relations/development.

(2) "Coordinating board" means the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

(3) "General academic teaching institution" and "public state college" have the meanings assigned by Section 61.003.

(4) "Performance measure" includes only a performance measure defined by coordinating board rule under Subsection (b).

(b) The coordinating board, using the negotiated rulemaking procedures under Chapter 2008, Government Code, shall define the following performance measures to be used for purposes of this section:

(1) the total number of undergraduate degrees awarded by the institution;

(2) the total number of undergraduate degrees awarded by the institution, adjusted by the institution's six-year graduation rate under Subdivision (10);

(3) the total number of undergraduate degrees awarded by the institution per 100 undergraduate full-time student equivalents;

(4) the total number of undergraduate degrees awarded by the institution to at-risk students;

(5) the total number of undergraduate students at the institution having successfully completed at least 25 percent of the student's degree requirements or having earned at least 30 credit hours toward a 120-credit-hour degree;

(6) the total number of undergraduate students at the institution having successfully completed at least 50 percent of the student's degree requirements or having earned at least 60 credit hours toward a 120-credit-hour degree;

(7) the total number of undergraduate students having successfully completed at least 75 percent of the student's degree requirements or having earned at least 90 credit hours toward a 120-credit-hour degree;

(8) the average length of enrollment, by number of semesters, required for undergraduate degree completion;

(9) the four-year graduation rate of first-time, full-time, bachelor's degree-seeking students who enrolled in at least 12 semester credit hours in the student's first fall semester at the institution and who graduated from the institution or from any other institution of higher education or private or independent institution of higher education;

(10) the six-year graduation rate of first-time, full-time, bachelor's degree-seeking students who enrolled in at least 12 semester credit hours in the student's first fall semester at the institution and who graduated from the institution or from any other institution of higher education or private or independent institution of higher education; and

(11) the institution's administrative costs.

(c) This section applies only to a general academic teaching institution other than a public state college.

(d) This section applies to tuition charged for an academic year by an institution to which this section applies only if the institution did not achieve, in the most recent state fiscal year preceding that academic year for which information is available, a majority of the target levels assigned to the performance measures included in the General Appropriations Act as applicable to the institution for that state fiscal year. For purposes of this subsection, an institution is considered to have achieved a target level assigned to a performance measure if the institution has achieved at least 98 percent of the target level.

(e) The coordinating board in consultation with the Legislative Budget Board shall determine whether an institution has achieved the applicable target levels for purposes of Subsection (d). Using the negotiated rulemaking procedures under Chapter 2008, Government Code, the coordinating board by rule shall establish the process by which an institution's achievement on a performance measure is submitted to and verified by the coordinating board.

(f) The coordinating board shall notify the governing board of an institution as soon as practicable if the coordinating board determines that this section applies to the tuition charged by the institution for an academic year and of the limitation prescribed by Subsection (g) on the amount of tuition that may be charged by the institution for that academic year.

(g) For an academic year in which this section applies to the tuition charged by an institution, unless the institution has been granted an exception under Subsection (i) for that year, the amount of tuition the governing board of the institution charges under Section 54.0513 to a student for that academic year may not exceed the total amount of tuition that the governing board would have charged under that section to a similarly situated student in the preceding academic year, as that amount is adjusted for each academic year for inflation as determined under Subsection (h). The governing board may not increase the amount of tuition charged under this section to a student more than once in any academic year. For purposes of this subsection, students are similarly situated if they share the same residency status, degree program, course load, course level, tuition exemption status, and other circumstances affecting the tuition charged to the student.

(h) Not later than January 31 of each year, or as soon thereafter as practicable, the Legislative Budget Board shall publish and certify to the governing board of each institution to which this section applies the inflation rate to be used for purposes of this section for the next academic year. The inflation rate is the percentage increase, if any, as expressed in decimal form rounded to the nearest thousandth of one percent, in the consumer price index, as defined by Section 341.201, Finance Code, for the preceding calendar year as compared to the consumer price index for the year preceding that year.

(i) The coordinating board, using the negotiated rulemaking procedures under Chapter 2008, Government Code, by rule shall establish an exception to the application of this section for an institution to which this section would otherwise apply for an academic year in the event of a natural disaster or other extraordinary circumstance affecting the institution's achievement on performance measures.

SECTION 2. Chapter 322, Government Code, is amended by adding Section 322.025 to read as follows:

Sec. 322.025. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PERFORMANCE MEASURE TARGET LEVELS FOR CERTAIN INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION. (a) In this section:

(1) "Institution of higher education" and "university system" have the meanings assigned by Section 61.003, Education Code.

(2) "Performance measure" means a performance measure adopted under Section 54.05131(b), Education Code.

(b) The governing board of each institution of higher education to which Section 54.05131, Education Code, applies shall submit to the board, as part of the institution's legislative appropriations request for the general appropriations bill prepared by the board under Section 322.008, a target level for each performance measure applicable to the institution for each of the state fiscal years covered by the bill. The target levels submitted by an institution under this subsection must be established by the institution's governing board in consultation with the institution's president and provosts and with the institution's system administration, if the institution is a component institution of a university system.

(c) The board, in preparing the general appropriations bill under Section 322.008, shall include the performance measure target levels submitted by each institution under Subsection (b) of this section to which money is to be appropriated in the bill, as recommendations for the target levels to be included in the appropriations to the institution for each of the state fiscal years covered by the bill.

SECTION 3. Section 54.05131, Education Code, as added by this Act, applies beginning with tuition charged by a general academic teaching institution to which that section applies for the 2018-2019 academic year. Tuition charged by an institution for an academic year before that academic year is covered by the law in effect immediately before the effective date of this Act, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.

SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2015.

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