By: Seliger S.B. No. 778
(In the Senate - Filed February 25, 2015; March 2, 2015,
read first time and referred to Committee on Higher Education;
April 13, 2015, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 5, Nays 1; April 13, 2015,
sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 778 By: Watson
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) This section 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 purposes of this
subsection, 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.
(e) The coordinating board in consultation with the
Legislative Budget Board shall determine whether an institution has
achieved the applicable target levels for purposes of Subsection
(d). 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.
(f) The coordinating board shall notify the governing board
of an institution as soon as practicable if the coordinating board
determines that this section applies to the tuition charged by the
institution for an academic year and of the limitation prescribed
by Subsection (g) on the amount of tuition that may be charged by
the institution for that academic year.
(g) For an academic year in which this section applies to
the tuition charged by an institution, unless the institution has
been granted an exception under Subsection (i) 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 each
academic year for inflation as determined under Subsection (h).
The governing board may not increase the amount of tuition charged
under this section to a student more than once in any academic year.
For purposes of this subsection, 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.
(h) 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.
(i) The coordinating board, using the negotiated rulemaking
procedures under Chapter 2008, Government Code, by rule shall
establish an exception to the application of this section for an
institution to which this section 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.
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.
(c) 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.
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