Highlights 77th Texas Legislature - Senate

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EDUCATION/Higher
77 th Texas Legislature
Medical and dental students now must purchase health insurance.
Several bills will improve access to higher education by:
• Granting resident tuition to a Mexican citizen who enrolls in an IHE located in a border county (S.B.
743 by Lucio/Coleman);
• Establishing a pilot program allowing one-half the regular tuition rate for students enrolling in
summer sessions at TAMU and TAMU-Kingsville (H.B. 152 by Brown/Ogden);
• Waiving tuition and fees for children of dead or disabled peace officers and fire fighters (H.B. 459
by Carter/Moncrief) and a person employed as a school classroom aide (H.B. 1130 by Rangel/
Barrientos);
• Waiving tuition and room and board at college residency properties, until a bachelor’s degree is
awarded or 200 credit hours are completed, for a surviving parent, spouse, or child of certain public
employees killed in the line of duty. (H.B. 877 by Flores/Barrientos);
• Allowing a person to include living costs in the amount of a student loan (H.B. 1938 by
Solis/Bivins);
• Providing a saving program for living costs during post secondary education (S.B. 555 by
Ellis/Junell);
• Extending from one to two years the time a person who graduated from a Texas high school and
who is 22 years old or younger and formerly received Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
qualifies for the one-year waiver of tuition and fees (H.B. 2279 by Naishtat/Barrientos);
• Allowing summer-session students to make time payments on tuition and fees (H.B. 1212 by
Dunnam/Fraser);
• Allowing students to be considered residents for tuition if they graduated from a state high school
(H.B. 1403 by Noriega/Van de Putte);
• Allowing the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to extend the time allowed under the
Texas Grant Program (S.B. 1057 by Ellis/Rangel);
• Establishing a pilot program allowing students who enroll in a community college in off-peak times
to pay a lower tuition (H.B. 1465 by Kitchen/Barrientos);
• Allowing spouses and dependent children of members of military formerly stationed in Texas for six
months to pay resident tuition (H.B. 1941 by Delisi/Truan); and
• Establishing a pilot program allowing UT Austin to offer flat rate tuition and fees for students
enrolling in more than 14 semester credit hours in two of its colleges (H.B. 3524 by
Hochberg/Zaffirini).
Senate Research Center 89