Bill Text: TX HB1212 | 2017-2018 | 85th Legislature | Introduced

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

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-04-27 - Left pending in committee [HB1212 Detail]

Download: Texas-2017-HB1212-Introduced.html

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85R1223 JRJ-F
By: Phillips H.B. No. 1212

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 (a), (b), (d), (e), (g), and (h) and adding
Subsections (a-1) and (g-1) to read as follows:
(a) The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board may
[shall] authorize public junior colleges to offer baccalaureate
degree programs in the fields of applied science, [and] applied
technology, and nursing under this section. Offering a
baccalaureate degree program under this section does not otherwise
alter the role and mission of a public junior college.
(a-1) Each biennium, the coordinating board, in
consultation with the Texas Workforce Commission, institutions of
higher education, and local workforce development boards, shall
identify at least three but not more than five applied science
disciplines for which a baccalaureate degree program may be offered
by a public junior college under this section.
(b) The coordinating board:
(1) shall authorize baccalaureate degree programs at
each public junior college that previously participated in a pilot
project to offer baccalaureate degree programs; and
(2) may authorize a baccalaureate degree program in
the field of nursing at one public junior college with district
boundaries wholly located in two counties that are adjacent to the
Red River and that has demonstrated a workforce need.
(d) Baccalaureate degree programs offered [A public junior
college offering a baccalaureate degree program] under this section
[may not offer more than five baccalaureate degree programs at any
time. The degree programs] are subject to the continuing approval
of the coordinating board.
(e) In determining what baccalaureate degree programs are
to be offered, the coordinating board shall:
(1) apply the same criteria and standards the
coordinating board uses to approve baccalaureate degree programs at
general academic teaching institutions; and
(2) consider the following factors:
(A) [(1)] the workforce need for the degree
programs in the region served by the junior college;
(B) [(2)] how those degree programs would
complement the other programs and course offerings of the junior
college and whether the associate degree program offered by the
junior college in the same field has been successful;
(C) [(3)] whether those degree programs would
unnecessarily duplicate the degree programs offered by other
institutions of higher education or whether a partnership with
other institutions of higher education is possible; [and]
(D) [(4)] the ability of the junior college to
support the program with student enrollment and the adequacy of the
junior college's facilities, faculty, administration, libraries,
and other resources; and
(E) whether the junior college meets the taxable
property valuation amount established in Section 130.032.
(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) For the first two years in which a degree program
created under Subsection (b)(2) is offered, the degree program 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) for the first two years in which the degree
program is offered. For the third, fourth, and fifth years in which
a degree program created under Subsection (b)(2) is offered, state
appropriations under Section 130.003 for the degree program may not
provide more than 50 percent of the total amount of funds required
to support the degree program.
(h) Each biennium, each [Each] public junior college
offering a baccalaureate degree program under this section shall
conduct a review of each baccalaureate degree program offered and
prepare a [biennial] report on the operation, quality, and
effectiveness of those [the junior college's baccalaureate] degree
programs. A [and shall deliver a] copy of the report shall be
delivered to the coordinating board in the form and at the time
determined by the coordinating board.
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, 2017.