Bill Text: TX SB1478 | 2019-2020 | 86th Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating to the fixed tuition price plan offered by certain general academic teaching institutions.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2019-04-24 - Left pending in committee [SB1478 Detail]

Download: Texas-2019-SB1478-Introduced.html

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86R2684 KSD-D
By: Bettencourt S.B. No. 1478

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 2020 fall semester. Fixed tuition price plans offered to
entering students at general academic teaching institutions for a
semester or term before the 2020 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, 2020.