Bill Text: TX SB1925 | 2017-2018 | 85th Legislature | Introduced


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 (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-03-23 - Referred to Higher Education [SB1925 Detail]

Download: Texas-2017-SB1925-Introduced.html
  85R14177 JRJ-F
 
  By: Lucio S.B. No. 1925
 
 
 
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), (d), (e), and (g), and adding Subsections
  (b-4), (e-1), and (g-1) to read as follows:
         (a)  The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board 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.
         (b-4)  The coordinating board shall authorize baccalaureate
  degree programs at one or more public junior colleges that offer a
  degree program in the field of nursing and have demonstrated a
  workforce need.
         (d)  A public junior college offering a baccalaureate degree
  program under this section may not offer more than six [five]
  baccalaureate degree programs at any time.  The degree programs are
  subject to the continuing approval of the coordinating board.
         (e)  In determining whether a public junior college may offer 
  [what] baccalaureate degree programs and what degree programs may 
  [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; and
                     (D) [(4)]  the ability of the junior college to
  support the degree programs with student enrollment [program] and
  the adequacy of the junior college's facilities, faculty,
  administration, libraries, and other resources.
         (e-1)  A public junior college may offer a baccalaureate
  degree program under this section only if its junior college
  district 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-4) 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-4).
         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.
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