88R13292 JTZ-D
By: Creighton S.B. No. 2137
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to requiring public institutions of higher education to
offer an undergraduate course in financial literacy and soft
skills.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 51.305, Education Code, is amended to
read as follows:
Sec. 51.305. PERSONAL FINANCIAL LITERACY AND SOFT SKILLS
[TRAINING]. (a) In this section:
(1) "Coordinating board" means the Texas Higher
Education Coordinating Board.
(2) "Institution of higher education" ["General
academic teaching institution"] has the meaning assigned by Section
61.003.
(b) Each institution of higher education [The coordinating
board by rule] shall offer an undergraduate elective course of
three semester credit hours or the equivalent [: (1) require a
general academic teaching institution to offer training] in
personal financial literacy and soft skills. The course must be
offered for credit toward satisfaction of a student's core
curriculum requirement in social and behavioral sciences.
(c) The personal financial literacy content provided under
the course:
(1) must include instruction in [to provide students
of the institution with] the knowledge and skills necessary as a
self-supporting adult [adults] to make critical decisions relating
to personal financial matters; and
(2) [determine the topics to be covered by the
training, which] may include instruction in budgeting, credit
cards, spending, saving, loan repayment and consolidation, taxes,
retirement planning, insurance, and financing of health care and
other benefits.
(d) The soft skills content provided under the course must
include instruction in:
(1) workplace ethics and etiquette;
(2) effective communication;
(3) leadership;
(4) organizational skills;
(5) time management;
(6) problem solving;
(7) critical thinking; and
(8) persistence.
(e) [(c)] The coordinating board [by rule] may adopt rules
for the administration of [provide for the training required under]
this section [to be offered in an online course].
SECTION 2. Section 51.305, Education Code, as amended by
this Act, applies beginning with the 2024 fall semester.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2023.