HBA-MPA H.B. 3142 76(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3142
By: Naishtat
Economic Development
4/4/1999
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Currently, some courses offered by businesses that prepare students for
college entrance exams are exempt from regulation while other courses
similar in nature are not.  Courses for the Law School Admission
Text(LSAT), the State Bar,  and the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT)
are exempt, while courses that prepare examinees for the Scholastic
Aptitude Test (SAT) and the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) are not exempt.
H.B. 3142 ensures consistency in the exemption for preparatory courses for
college entrance exams and exempts from regulation companies that
manufacture or produce a product and then train consumers about how to use
their product.  

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 132.002(a), Education Code, to exclude from the
definition of "proprietary schools," a school that offers intensive review
of a student's previously acquired education, training, or experience to
prepare the student for an examination that the student by law may not take
unless the student has completed or substantially completed, or is required
to take as a precondition of enrollment or a condition of admission in a
particular certificate or degree program, rather than courses designed to
prepare students for certain specified professional courses.  Provides that
a course of instruction in the use of a product offered to a purchaser or
the purchaser's employee by a person who manufactures or sells the product
and is not primarily in the business of providing courses of instruction in
product use is not within the definition of "proprietary schools." 

SECTION 2.  Makes application of this Act prospective.

SECTION 3.  Effective date: September 1, 1999.

SECTION 4.  Emergency clause.