By: Thibaut, Guillen H.B. No. 2347
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.B. No. 2347By: Duncan By: Duncan
(In the Senate - Received from the House April 29, 2009;
May 4, 2009, read first time and referred to Committee on Higher
Education; May 25, 2009, reported adversely, with favorable
Committee Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 5, Nays 0;
May 25, 2009, sent to printer.)
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to tuition and laboratory fee exemptions at public
institutions of higher education for certain peace officers
enrolled in criminal justice or law enforcement management-related
course work.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 54.208, Education Code, is amended to
read as follows:
Sec. 54.208. FIREFIGHTERS AND PEACE OFFICERS [FIREMEN]
ENROLLED IN CERTAIN [FIRE SCIENCE] COURSES. (a) The governing
board of an institution of higher education [boards of the state
institutions of collegiate rank supported in whole or in part by
public funds] shall exempt from the payment of tuition and
laboratory fees a student [any person] who is employed as a
firefighter [fireman] by a [any] political subdivision of this
[the] state and who enrolls in a course or courses offered as part
of a fire science curriculum.
(b) The governing board of an institution of higher
education shall exempt from the payment of tuition and laboratory
fees charged by the institution for a criminal justice or law
enforcement course or courses an undergraduate student who:
(1) is employed as a peace officer by this state or by
a political subdivision of this state;
(2) is enrolled in a criminal justice or law
enforcement-related degree program at the institution;
(3) is making satisfactory academic progress toward
the student's degree as determined by the institution; and
(4) applies for the exemption at least one week before
the last date of the institution's regular registration period for
the applicable semester or other term.
(c) Notwithstanding Subsection (b), a student may not
receive an exemption under that subsection for any course if the
student has previously attempted a number of semester credit hours
for courses taken at any institution of higher education while
classified as a resident student for tuition purposes in excess of
the maximum number of those hours specified by Section 61.0595(a)
as eligible for funding under the formulas established under
Section 61.059.
(d) Notwithstanding Subsection (b), the governing board of
an institution of higher education may not provide exemptions under
that subsection to students enrolled in a specific class in a number
that exceeds 20 percent of the maximum student enrollment
designated by the institution for that class.
(e) An [The] exemption provided under this section does not
apply to deposits that [which] may be required in the nature of
security for the return or proper care of property loaned for the
use of students.
(f) The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board shall
adopt:
(1) rules governing the granting or denial of an
exemption under this section, including rules relating to the
determination of a student's eligibility for an exemption; and
(2) a uniform listing of degree programs covered by
the exemption under this section.
(g) If the legislature does not specifically appropriate
funds to an institution of higher education in an amount sufficient
to pay the institution's costs in complying with this section for a
semester, the governing board of the institution of higher
education shall report to the Senate Finance Committee and the
House Appropriations Committee the cost to the institution of
complying with this section for that semester.
SECTION 2. The changes in law made by this Act to Section
54.208, Education Code, apply beginning with tuition and laboratory
fees charged for the 2011 fall semester. Tuition and laboratory
fees charged for an academic period before the 2011 fall semester
are 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 3. This Act takes effect January 1, 2011.
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