Bill Text: TX SB778 | 2015-2016 | 84th Legislature | Comm Sub

---

Bill Title: Relating to performance-based tuition limitations for certain public institutions of higher education.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 2)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2015-05-24 - Committee report sent to Calendars [SB778 Detail]

Download: Texas-2015-SB778-Comm_Sub.html

---

84R31260 KSD-D
By: Seliger S.B. No. 778
(Zerwas)
Substitute the following for S.B. No. 778: No.

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to performance-based tuition limitations for certain
public institutions of higher education.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter B, Chapter 54, Education Code, is
amended by adding Section 54.05131 to read as follows:
Sec. 54.05131. PERFORMANCE-BASED DESIGNATED TUITION
LIMITATIONS. (a) In this section:
(1) "Administrative costs" means the percentage of an
institution's operating budget expended on institutional expenses,
as designated in an institution's annual financial reports in the
subcategories of executive management, fiscal operations, general
administrative and logistical services, administrative computing
support, and public relations/development.
(2) "Coordinating board" means the Texas Higher
Education Coordinating Board.
(3) "General academic teaching institution" and
"public state college" have the meanings assigned by Section
61.003.
(4) "Performance measure" includes only a performance
measure defined by coordinating board rule under Subsection (b).
(b) The coordinating board, using the negotiated rulemaking
procedures under Chapter 2008, Government Code, shall define the
following performance measures to be used for purposes of this
section:
(1) the total number of undergraduate degrees awarded
by the institution;
(2) the total number of undergraduate degrees awarded
by the institution, adjusted by the institution's six-year
graduation rate under Subdivision (10);
(3) the total number of undergraduate degrees awarded
by the institution per 100 undergraduate full-time student
equivalents;
(4) the total number of undergraduate degrees awarded
by the institution to at-risk students;
(5) the total number of undergraduate students at the
institution having successfully completed at least 25 percent of
the student's degree requirements or having earned at least 30
credit hours toward a 120-credit-hour degree;
(6) the total number of undergraduate students at the
institution having successfully completed at least 50 percent of
the student's degree requirements or having earned at least 60
credit hours toward a 120-credit-hour degree;
(7) the total number of undergraduate students having
successfully completed at least 75 percent of the student's degree
requirements or having earned at least 90 credit hours toward a
120-credit-hour degree;
(8) the average length of enrollment, by number of
semesters, required for undergraduate degree completion;
(9) the four-year graduation rate of first-time,
full-time, bachelor's degree-seeking students who enrolled in at
least 12 semester credit hours in the student's first fall semester
at the institution and who graduated from the institution or from
any other institution of higher education or private or independent
institution of higher education;
(10) the six-year graduation rate of first-time,
full-time, bachelor's degree-seeking students who enrolled in at
least 12 semester credit hours in the student's first fall semester
at the institution and who graduated from the institution or from
any other institution of higher education or private or independent
institution of higher education; and
(11) the institution's administrative costs.
(c) This section applies only to a general academic teaching
institution other than a public state college.
(d) The coordinating board in consultation with the
Legislative Budget Board shall determine whether an institution has
achieved the applicable target levels for purposes of Subsections
(f) and (g). Using the negotiated rulemaking procedures under
Chapter 2008, Government Code, the coordinating board by rule shall
establish the process by which an institution's achievement on a
performance measure is submitted to and verified by the
coordinating board.
(e) The coordinating board shall notify the governing board
of an institution as soon as practicable after the coordinating
board determines that Subsection (f) or (g) applies to the tuition
charged by the institution for an academic year and of the
limitation prescribed by the applicable subsection on the amount of
tuition that may be charged by the institution for that academic
year.
(f) This subsection applies to tuition charged for an
academic year by an institution to which this section applies only
if the institution did not achieve, in the most recent state fiscal
year preceding that academic year for which information is
available, a majority of the target levels assigned to the
performance measures included in the General Appropriations Act as
applicable to the institution for that state fiscal year. For an
academic year in which this subsection applies to the tuition
charged by an institution, unless the institution has been granted
an exception under Subsection (j) for that year, the amount of
tuition the governing board of the institution charges under
Section 54.0513 to a student for that academic year may not exceed
the total amount of tuition that the governing board would have
charged under that section to a similarly situated student in the
preceding academic year, as that amount is adjusted for inflation
as determined under Subsection (i). The governing board may not
increase the amount of tuition charged under this subsection to a
student more than once in any academic year.
(g) This subsection applies to tuition charged for an
academic year by an institution to which this section applies only
if the institution achieved, in the most recent state fiscal year
preceding that academic year for which information is available, a
majority of the target levels assigned to the performance measures
included in the General Appropriations Act as applicable to the
institution for that state fiscal year. For an academic year in
which this subsection applies to the tuition charged by an
institution, the amount of tuition the governing board of the
institution charges under Section 54.0513 to a student for that
academic year may not exceed by more than five percent the total
amount of tuition that the governing board would have charged under
that section to a similarly situated student in the preceding
academic year, as that amount is adjusted for inflation as
determined under Subsection (i). The governing board may not
increase the amount of tuition charged under this subsection to a
student more than once in any academic year.
(h) For purposes of this section:
(1) an institution is considered to have achieved a
target level assigned to a performance measure if the institution
has achieved at least 98 percent of the target level; and
(2) students are similarly situated if they share the
same residency status, degree program, course load, course level,
tuition exemption status, and other circumstances affecting the
tuition charged to the student.
(i) Not later than January 31 of each year, or as soon
thereafter as practicable, the Legislative Budget Board shall
publish and certify to the governing board of each institution to
which this section applies the inflation rate to be used for
purposes of this section for the next academic year. The inflation
rate is the percentage increase, if any, as expressed in decimal
form rounded to the nearest thousandth of one percent, in the
consumer price index, as defined by Section 341.201, Finance Code,
for the preceding calendar year as compared to the consumer price
index for the year preceding that year.
(j) The coordinating board, using the negotiated rulemaking
procedures under Chapter 2008, Government Code, by rule shall
establish an exception to the application of Subsection (f) for an
institution to which that subsection would otherwise apply for an
academic year in the event of a natural disaster or other
extraordinary circumstance affecting the institution's achievement
on performance measures. Subsection (g) applies to an institution
that is granted an exception under this subsection.
SECTION 2. Chapter 322, Government Code, is amended by
adding Section 322.025 to read as follows:
Sec. 322.025. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PERFORMANCE MEASURE
TARGET LEVELS FOR CERTAIN INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION.
(a) In this section:
(1) "Institution of higher education" and "university
system" have the meanings assigned by Section 61.003, Education
Code.
(2) "Performance measure" means a performance measure
adopted under Section 54.05131(b), Education Code.
(b) The governing board of each institution of higher
education to which Section 54.05131, Education Code, applies shall
submit to the board, as part of the institution's legislative
appropriations request for the general appropriations bill
prepared by the board under Section 322.008, a target level for each
performance measure applicable to the institution for each of the
state fiscal years covered by the bill. The target levels submitted
by an institution under this subsection must be established by the
institution's governing board in consultation with the
institution's president and provosts and with the institution's
system administration, if the institution is a component
institution of a university system. In establishing the target
levels, the institution's governing board shall consider the Texas
Higher Education Coordinating Board's standards under Subsection
(c).
(c) The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, using
the negotiated rulemaking procedures under Chapter 2008, by rule
shall develop standards to be considered by the governing board of
an institution of higher education in establishing the
institution's target levels for performance measures under
Subsection (b). In developing the standards, the negotiating
committee established for purposes of this subsection and the
coordinating board shall consider institutional improvement on
target levels. The coordinating board shall reconvene the
negotiating committee to assist the coordinating board whenever the
coordinating board modifies or updates the standards.
(d) The board, in preparing the general appropriations bill
under Section 322.008, shall include the performance measure target
levels submitted by each institution under Subsection (b) of this
section to which money is to be appropriated in the bill, as
recommendations for the target levels to be included in the
appropriations to the institution for each of the state fiscal
years covered by the bill.
SECTION 3. Section 54.05131, Education Code, as added by
this Act, applies beginning with tuition charged by a general
academic teaching institution to which that section applies for the
2018-2019 academic year. Tuition charged by an institution for an
academic year before that academic year is covered by the law in
effect immediately before the effective date of this Act, and the
former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2015.