TITLE: Relating to authorization by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for certain public junior colleges to offer baccalaureate degree programs.

SUMMARY: Relating to authorization by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for certain public junior colleges to offer baccalaureate degree programs.

FULL TEXT:
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, at the time the degree is initially offered, the public junior college is located in a county: (A) with a population greater than 750,000; (B) in which all or part of a municipality with a population greater than one million is located; and (C) that is located adjacent to a county with a population greater than two million.(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.