81R1235 KJM-D
By: Brown of Brazos H.B. No. 100
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to curriculum requirements in political science and
American history at institutions of higher education.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 51.301(a), Education Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(a) Every college and university receiving state support or
state aid from public funds shall give a course of instruction in
government or political science which includes consideration of the
Constitution of the United States and the constitutions of the
states, with special emphasis on that of Texas. This course shall
have a credit value of not less than three [six] semester hours or
its equivalent. Except as provided by Subsection (c), a college or
university receiving state support or state aid from public funds
may not grant a baccalaureate degree or a lesser degree or academic
certificate to any person unless the person has credit for such a
course. The college or university may determine that a student has
satisfied this requirement in whole or in part on the basis of
credit granted to the student by the college or university for a
substantially equivalent course completed at another accredited
college or university or on the basis of the student's successful
completion of an advanced standing examination administered on the
conditions and under the circumstances common for the college or
university's advanced standing examinations. The college or
university may grant as much as three semester hours of credit or
its equivalent toward satisfaction of this requirement for
substantially equivalent work completed by the student in the
program of an approved senior R.O.T.C. unit.
SECTION 2. Section 51.302(b), Education Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(b) Except as provided by Subsection (c), a college or
university receiving state support or state aid from public funds
may not grant a baccalaureate degree or a lesser degree or academic
certificate to any person unless the person has credit for three
[six] semester hours or its equivalent in American History. A
student is entitled to submit as much as three semester hours of
credit or its equivalent in Texas History toward [in partial]
satisfaction of this requirement. The college or university may
determine that a student has satisfied this requirement in whole or
part on the basis of credit granted to the student by the college or
university for a substantially equivalent course completed at
another accredited college or university, or on the basis of the
student's successful completion of an advanced standing
examination administered on the conditions and under the
circumstances common for the college or university's advanced
standing examinations. The college or university may grant as much
as three semester hours of credit or its equivalent toward
satisfaction of this requirement for substantially equivalent work
completed by a student in the program of an approved senior R.O.T.C.
unit.
SECTION 3. The changes in law made by this Act to Sections
51.301(a) and 51.302(b), Education Code, apply only to the
curriculum requirements for a degree or certificate awarded by an
institution of higher education on or after the effective date of
this Act. The curriculum requirements for a degree or certificate
awarded by an institution of higher education before the effective
date of this Act are governed by the law in effect immediately
before that date, and the former law is continued in effect for that
purpose.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2009.