This website will be unavailable from Thursday, May 30, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. through Monday, June 3, 2024 at 7:00 a.m. due to data center maintenance.

 

BILL ANALYSIS

 

 

 

C.S.H.B. 1180

By: Guillen

Higher Education

Committee Report (Substituted)

 

 

 

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

 

It has been noted that the Texas armed services scholarship program currently requires students to enter military service upon graduation with a bachelor's degree and does not allow students who qualify for and wish to pursue higher degrees to do so before enlisting. C.S.H.B. 1180 seeks to remedy this problem by allowing students receiving scholarships under the program to attain a graduate degree before enlistment.

 

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

 

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

 

It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in SECTION 1 of this bill.

 

ANALYSIS

 

C.S.H.B. 1180 amends the Education Code to require a scholarship agreement for the Texas armed services scholarship program to allow a student, on completion of an undergraduate degree program and before entering into a commitment or contract for military service as prescribed by the scholarship program, to complete a graduate or postgraduate degree program at a public or private institution of higher education in Texas. The bill requires the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to adopt rules for the administration of this requirement.

 

EFFECTIVE DATE

 

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2019.

 

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

 

While C.S.H.B. 1180 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

 

The substitute does not include the following:

·         the specification that the graduate or postgraduate degree program must be relevant to the student's military service; and

·         the procedural provision establishing that the bill's provisions apply beginning with scholarships awarded for the 2019-2020 academic year.