HBA-MPM C.S.H.B. 1882 76(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 1882 By: Naishtat Higher Education 4/1/1999 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The 75th Legislature enacted legislation which cut off state formula funding for university graduate students with more than 99 credit hours and vested authority to grant exemptions with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (board). The intent of that legislation was to encourage steady progress toward graduation, but it did not provide sufficient guidance to the board in how to administer individual and program exemptions. C.S.H.B. 1882 codifies the rulings the board has already made with regard to reasonable exemptions to the 99-hour rule. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 54.066, Education Code, to require the legislature, in its appropriations, to compute the local funds available to each institution of higher education as if the tuition collected under this section were not collected. Deletes the requirement that tuition charged at the rate provided by this section be accounted for as if collected under Section 54.008 (Tuition Rate Set by Governing Board), Education Code. SECTION 2. Amends Section 61.059(l), Education Code, as follows: (l)(1) Makes a nonsubstantive change. (2) Authorizes the board to approve formula funding for semester credit hours in excess of 99, rather than 100, not to exceed 130 total hours, for a doctoral student if the institution provides the board certain information. (3) Authorizes the board to establish guidelines recognizing other reasonable exceptions to Subdivision (1), under which an institution may designate doctoral students for whom the board shall approve funding for more than 99 hours, but not to exceed 130 hours. (4) Requires the board to approve formula funding for all doctoral students enrolled in a doctoral program that is substantially similar to a doctoral program that commonly requires completion of 100 or more semester credit hours, that is offered by a medical or dental unit. and that is funded in a manner that does not directly depend on whether a student in the program pays tuition at the rate charged other Texas residents or at a higher rate. (5) Redesignated from existing Subdivision (3). Requires the board to report to the Legislative Budget Board, as part of its report on formula funding recommendations, a list of the exceptions approved under this subsection, rather than under Subdivision (2), and the associated costs in formula-based funding. (6) Requires each institution to inform, in writing, each new doctoral student enrolling at that institution of the limitation provided by this subsection on the number of hours that a Texas resident enrolled in a doctoral program is entitled to complete while paying tuition at the rate provided for state residents. SECTION 3. Makes this Act applicable only to a formula established under Section 61.059, Education Code, on or after September 1, 1999. SECTION 4.Emergency clause. Effective date: upon passage. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE C.S.H.B. 1882 changes the original bill to provide a new SECTION 1, which amends Section 54.066, Education Code, to require the legislature, in its appropriations, to compute the local funds available to each institution of higher education as if the tuition collected under this section were not collected. Deletes the requirement that tuition charged at the rate provided by this section be accounted for as if collected under Section 54.008 (Tuition Rate Set by Governing Board), Education Code. SECTION 2 in the substitute is redesignated from SECTION 1 in the original. The proposed new changes to SECTION 2 (Section 61.059(l), Education Code), are as follows: (l)(1) Makes a nonsubstantive change. (2) Authorizes the board to approve formula funding for semester credit hours in excess of 99, rather than 100, not to exceed 130 total hours, for a doctoral student if the institution provides the board with certain information. (3) Authorizes, rather than requires, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (board) to establish guidelines recognizing reasonable exceptions to Subdivision (l), under which an institution may designate doctoral students for whom the board is required to approve formula funding for semester credit hours in excess of 99, rather than 100, and not to exceed 130 total hours. The substitute deletes proposed Subdivision (4) in the original, which required the board to establish certain guidelines with respect to the identification of doctoral programs which should be exempt under Subdivision (1), and replaces it with Subdivision (4), as follows: (4) Redesignated from original Subdivision (5). Requires the board to approve formula funding for all doctoral students enrolled in a doctoral program that is substantially similar to a doctoral program that commonly requires completion of 100 or more semester credit hours, that is offered by a medical or dental unit. and that is funded in a manner that does not directly depend on whether a student in the program pays tuition at the rate charged other Texas residents or at a higher rate. The original bill did not qualify the program as comparable to one commonly requiring completion of 100 or more hours and that is offered by a medical and dental unit. (5) Redesignated from original Subdivision (6). Makes a nonsubstantive change from the original bill. (6) Added as a new subdivision. Requires each institution to inform, in writing, each new doctoral student enrolling at that institution of the limitation provided by this subsection on the number of hours that a Texas resident enrolled in a doctoral program is entitled to complete while paying tuition at the rate provided for state residents.