Highlights of the 79th Texas Legislature - Senate

EDUCATION/HIGHER
Provides for inclusion or participation in a JCD through contracts with an entity or community for service or by petition
of registered voters of the area.
Provides that a student residing in such an area be charged resident tuition and fees, and the entity or community
contracting for service pay any costs that exceed the tuition and fee revenue for the area.
Allows the JCD to set the nonresident tuition rate after considering the amount necessary to encourage areas outside
the taxing district to join the taxing district; to avoid subsidizing nonresident students with tax revenues; and to
include an amount equal to the ratio of the total tax collected divided by the number of credit hours taken by resident
students.
Authorizes a JCD to contract with a person, employer, political subdivision, or entity to provide educational services
outside the JCD so long as the entity pays costs in excess of the resident tuition and fees paid by the students in the
programs.
Requires a JCD to annex only adjacent property contained in a whole school district, county, or municipality.
Provides processes for petitioning for annexation, hearings, holding the election, and incorporating the area annexed.
Restricts voting in an annexation election to the registered voters in the area to be annexed.
Authorizes a JCD that previously annexed an entire school district or municipality to automatically annex any territory
subsequently annexed into either entity.
Provides a process for a JCD to annex adjacent territory located in a county-line school district by petition signed by
five percent of the registered voters participating in the last state general election.
Authorizes a JCD to order an election to annex all territory located in the district's service area when 35 percent of
students reside outside of the district or when more than 15 percent of the high school graduates in the territory to be
annexed enrolled in the junior college in the previous five years.
Graduate Medical Education—H.B. 2420
By Representative Chavez—Senate Sponsor: Senator Lucio
Currently, due to a lack of residency positions, the area along the Texas/Mexico border is unable to develop and
maintain programs that will provide access to health care for patients and reduce costs associated with the lack of
access to health care. This bill:
Allows teaching hospitals along the border to sustain and expand their training programs.
Provides for more physicians to receive training and set up their practices along the border.
P-16 Council—H.B. 2808
By Representative Morrison—Senate Sponsor: Senator West
Currently, coordination of public schools and institutions of higher education is designated as cooperation between
state agencies of education. This bill:
HIGHLIGHTS - 79 TH TEXAS LEGISLATURE 65