HBA-TYH H.B. 3295 76(R)BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3295
By: Goolsby
Economic Development
7/22/1999
Enrolled



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Prior to the 76th Legislature, Section 132.201 (Certificate and
Registration Fees), Education Code, authorized the Texas Workforce
Commission (commission) to collect fees for the regulation of proprietary
schools and stated that all fees, interests, or other charges collected
were required to be used for the administration of the proprietary school
program.  However, in past fiscal years, the fees collected by the
commission have exceeded the amount necessary to administer the school
program. 

Section 132.241 (Tuition Protection Fund), Education Code, provided that
proprietary schools pay a fee to the credit of the "tuition protection
fund" when the school pays its annual renewal fee.  These schools were then
subject to an additional assessed fee during any given year if the balance
of the tuition fund was below $200,000. 

H.B. 3295 allows the commission to transfer any excess fees collected for
the administration of the school program to the tuition protection fund.
The bill prohibits the balance of the fund to exceed $250,000.  The bill
also excludes certain schools from the definition of "proprietary schools." 

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 school," the following: 

_a school that offers intensive review of a student's acquired education,
training, or experience to prepare the student for an examination, other
than a high school equivalency examination, that the student by law may not
take unless the student has completed or substantially completed a
particular degree program, or that the student is required to take as a
precondition for enrollment in or admission to a particular degree program;
and  

_a course of instruction in the use of technological hardware or software
if the course is offered to a purchaser of the hardware or software or to
the purchaser's employee by a person who manufactures and sells, or
develops and sells, the hardware or software, and if the seller is not
primarily in the business of providing courses of instruction in the use of
the hardware or software, as determined by the Texas Workforce Commission
(commission). 

Deletes from the exclusion for the definition of  "proprietary school" a
school that offers intensive review courses designed to prepare students
for certified public accountancy tests, public accountancy tests, law
school aptitude tests, bar examinations, or medical college admissions
tests. 

SECTION 2.  Amends Section 132.241, Education Code, by adding Subsection
(e), as follows: 

(e)  Authorizes the commission, if at the end of a fiscal year the
commission determines  that it has collected fees in excess of the amount
necessary to defray the cost and expense of administering this chapter
(Proprietary Schools), to transfer any portion of the excess amount to the
tuition protection fund.  Prohibits the balance of the tuition protection
fund from exceeding an amount greater than $250,000. 

SECTION 3.  Effective date: September 1, 1999.

SECTION 4.  Emergency clause.