By: Johnson of Harris H.B. No. 1705
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to curriculum requirements in American history at
institutions of higher education.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. 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 six
semester hours or its equivalent in American history [History]. A
student must [is entitled to] submit [as much as] three semester
hours of credit or its equivalent from a course providing a
comprehensive survey of American history or [in] Texas history
[History] in partial satisfaction of this requirement. The
remaining three semester hours of credit or its equivalent may be
satisfied by credit from any American history or Texas history
course. 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 2. The changes in law made by this Act apply only to
the curriculum requirements established for a degree or certificate
program offered by an institution of higher education beginning
with undergraduate students who initially enroll in the institution
for the 2018 fall semester.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2017.