85R784 KSD-D
 
  By: Bettencourt S.B. No. 2033
 
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to the fixed tuition price plan offered by certain general
  academic teaching institutions.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Section 54.017, Education Code, is amended by
  amending Subsection (c) and adding Subsections (c-1) and (c-2) to
  read as follows:
         (c)  The governing board of an institution to which this
  section applies shall offer entering undergraduate students,
  including undergraduate students who transfer to the institution,
  the opportunity to participate in a fixed tuition price plan under
  which the institution, subject to any restrictions or
  qualifications adopted by the governing board, agrees:
               (1)  not to increase tuition charges per semester
  credit hour for a participating student for at least the first 18
  [12] consecutive semesters that occur after the date of the
  student's initial enrollment at any public or private institution
  of higher education, regardless of whether the student enrolls at
  any institution in those semesters; and
               (2)  to provide to any student participating in the
  fixed tuition price plan:
                     (A)  a rebate of tuition charges, in an amount
  prescribed by the institution, if the student is awarded a
  baccalaureate degree by the institution within four calendar years
  after the date of the student's initial enrollment at any public or
  private institution of higher education; and
                     (B)  a rebate of tuition charges, in an amount
  prescribed by the institution that is less than the rebate amount
  prescribed under Paragraph (A), if the student does not qualify for
  a rebate under Paragraph (A) and is awarded a baccalaureate degree
  by the institution within five calendar years after the date of the
  student's initial enrollment at any public or private institution
  of higher education.
         (c-1)  An institution to which this section applies shall
  provide to each entering undergraduate student, at the time the
  student is offered the opportunity to participate in the
  institution's fixed tuition price plan, detailed information
  regarding the tuition rebates offered by the institution under
  Subsection (c)(2), including the amounts of those rebates [, and
  subject to any restrictions or qualifications adopted by the
  governing board].
         (c-2)  For purposes of this section, one or more summer terms
  occurring in the same summer is considered a semester.
         SECTION 2.  Section 54.017, Education Code, as amended by
  this Act, applies beginning with fixed tuition price plans offered
  to entering students at general academic teaching institutions for
  the 2018 fall semester. Fixed tuition price plans offered to
  entering students at general academic teaching institutions for a
  semester or term before the 2018 fall semester are governed by the
  law in effect immediately before the effective date of this Act, and
  that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
         SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect January 1, 2018.