Legislative Update
82ND LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Dennis McMillan
October 2011
Leadership Alliance / UTPA
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Always start with something
funny!
Back in February when HB1 was filed………
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 Containing the most drastic higher education cuts in
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recent memory
Closing four community colleges
Eliminating Texas Grant
Eliminating growth funding
Reducing formula funding
On the day HB1 was filed………
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 A bill was filed to allow hunting
feral hogs from helicopters
 A bill was filed to prescribe
penalties for practicing dentistry on
livestock if you are not a
veterinarian
They went on to file bills……….
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 To allow Texas sportsmen to “Noodle”
catfish in Texas lakes and ponds…….
 To make “42” the official domino game
of Texas
82nd Legislative Session plus one
Special Session:
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 The regular session went from January to May without passing a
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state budget
Very fast paced toward the latter weeks of the session, but budget
issues for public education could not be resolved in time to prevent a
special session
A special session was held in June considering the budget and a
small number of other issues identified by the governor
Only 5,873 bills were filed compared to a record 7,324 bills in the last
session - with several hundred related to education.
1400 bills went to the governor for signature/veto consideration.
82nd Legislative Session plus one
Special Session:
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 Why the Special Session?
 Filibuster by Rep. Donna Howard to try to avoid $4 billion cuts to
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public education on the last day of the regular sessions stalled the
appropriations bill and resulted in the special session.
The special session focused mostly on public education funding but
attempts were made to pass the TSA “pat down” ban, and a sanctuary
cities bill.
Special legislation cut $4B in public education - changes teacher
contracts, allows pay reductions, allows larger class size, allows
unpaid furloughs, and reduces the attendance formula.
First time since 1949 the Texas legislature has not funded for student
population growth (currently growing at 80K students per year).
All passed easily because of suspension of the 2/3 majority rule.
End Result?
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 State passed $172B budget.
 Reduced 8% from prior session
 Cuts Medicaid and accelerates payments of taxes/fees
 Cuts higher education by $1B
 Cut public education by $4B – Texas Ranks:
 43rd in high school graduation rates
 47th in expenditures per student
 45th in SAT scores
 Dead last in >25 population with HS Diploma
End Result for Higher Education?
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 Cuts higher education by $1B
 Level formula funding for community colleges
 CC employees lost a portion medical insurance funding
 10% reduction for health related institutions formula
 5% reduction for university formula
 Institutional Enhancement funding cut dramatically
 Line item projects cut dramatically
 No funding for enrollment growth
 No funding for outcomes-based measures
Accessing Current Statutes
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Go to www.capitol.state.tx.us
 Click on “statutes”
 Select “Education Code”
 Select desired chapter
 Scroll to relevant section
Accessing Bills
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Go to www.capitol.state.tx.us
 Click on “bill lookup”
 Enter bill number (example, SB93)
 Click on “submit”
 Select icon for “enrolled” bill
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 What was going on with Texas
Higher Education going into the
session?
 Governor Perry appointed a task force to recommend
cost efficiencies – report released July 2010
 THECB released legislative recommendations in
September 2010
 50% of formula appropriated in last session funded
with one-time federal stimulus money
Governor Perry’s Cost Efficiencies
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 Fund student success
 Award Texas Grant based on merit
 Continue performance based funding for universities
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focusing on graduation and research
Fund momentum points in community colleges
Statewide articulation
10% distance education for most programs
Require degree plan in freshmen year
College Readiness / single assessment
Co-Board Recommendations
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 10% of university formula for degree completion – total,
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critical fields, and at risk students
10% of community college formula for completion –
college readiness, English and/or Math, 15 credit hours,
30 credit hours, Associate’s Degree or transfer
Texas Grant – merit based award
10% Distance Ed
Degree plan freshmen year
Academic progress for exemptions
Statewide articulation / 60 SCH Associate’s Degree
Which Bills Got the VETO
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 HB 992 Would exempts community
college credit hours from the excess
hour cap imposed at the university
level
 SB 40 Would redefine the role of
Texas Guaranteed Student Loan
Corporation
What Did Not Make It
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 HB 1420 Exempts students at public technical
institutes, public junior colleges, or public state
colleges from “six drop rule.”
 HB 136 Would have repealed six-drop and allowed
colleges to set their own drop limit
 Concealed weapons (several bills)
 118 “Arizona” style anti-immigration bills died in
committee or failed to come up for a vote on the floor
– Sanctuary Cities bill was filed in Special Session
but did not pass
What Did Not Make It
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 HB 375 Authorizes the establishment of one veterans
resource center in institutions of higher education in
each of the 10 higher education regions across the state.
 HB 766 Exempts textbooks for university and college
courses from the sales tax.
 HB 946 Requires IHEs to report to the Coordinating
Board any course included in the common course
numbering system that has been added to or removed
from the institution's list for the current academic year.
What Did Not Make It
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 HB 1193 Requires that the high school grade point average be
based only on core curriculum high school courses; grades in
electives may not be used in the GPA calculation.
 HB 845 Requires that a standard method be developed to give
the same weight to each honors course, advanced placement,
international baccalaureate, or dual credit courses when
calculating a high school student’s GPA. Also stipulates that
GPA computation must be used for automatic college
admission purposes.
 HB 1268 Stipulates that in developing the standard method to
be used, the commissioner of education may not give
additional weight to international baccalaureate courses.
What Did Not Make It
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 SB 1728: Amends the Texas Success Initiative program
that assesses student readiness to perform freshman
level course work and provides developmental education
courses to appropriate students. (Would have mandated
all developmental education to the community colleges –
SB 162 did go to the governor)
 SB 568 Provides the ability for a public or private
institution of higher education to obtain criminal history
of those students applying to reside in on-campus
housing.
 SB 945 Authorizes a public junior college to award an
associate degree to a student enrolled in a four-year
public institution of higher education who previously
attended the junior college when certain criteria are met.
What Happened to Guns on Campus?
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 Concealed Weapons bills were introduced in both
chambers
 In the House there were five bills introduced with
many co-sponsors (HB86, 354, 750, 1167, 2178)
 Super Majority in House (101 Republicans and 49
Democrats) – most thought concealed weapons
would be easy passage
 Senator Wentworth introduced the senate version
What Happened to Guns on Campus?
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 Senator Wentworth could not muster enough votes
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in Senate bring issue to a vote
Wentworth tacked bill on to Zaffirini funding bill
Zaffirini withdrew her bill rather than let it go
forward with weapons amendment
Wentworth added his bill on to Ogden bill and
concealed weapons finally passed in the Senate
In the House amendment was ruled unrelated and
was stripped from the bill
Financial Aid Funding
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 Texas Grant funding reduced to $559.5 million
 Should cover all renewal awards and approximately
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50% of the new awards
New awards amounts:
$5,000 Universities
$1,325 Community Colleges
$2,500 Texas State Technical Colleges
Legislators Create Higher Ed Oversight
Committee
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 Speaker Joe Straus and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst have created
a new Joint Oversight Committee on Higher Education
Governance, Excellence, and Transparency. It will be chaired
by Senate Higher Education Chairwoman Judith Zaffirini, DLaredo, and House Higher Education Chair Dan Branch, RDallas.
 The announcement was made amidst an ongoing, contentious
debate about the future of higher education in Texas that
played out publicly at the level of the University of Texas
Board of Regents.
 At the center of the matter is a dispute over allegations of
micro-management from the governor’s office and others
connected to Governor Perry in the Texas Public Policy
Foundation.
New Group Forms in Response to Uproar
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 Approximately 200 higher education leaders and
supporters have formed The Coalition for Excellence
in Higher Education. This is the latest group — and
one of the largest — to form in the wake of a
controversy over Gov. Rick Perry's promotion of
"seven breakthrough solutions" written by Austin
businessman Jeff Sandefer. Other groups have
included Texas Business for Higher Education and
the Alliance for Texas A&M University, many
members of which are part of this new coalition.
Three New Riders
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Dual Credit Study – analyze and report on the fiscal
and instructional impacts on student outcomes for dual
credit courses
Community College System – provide the LBB and
Governor with a blueprint to establish a state system
administration fro public community colleges
TSTC Returned Value Funding Model – to reward
job placement and graduate earnings projections rather
than contact hours and time in training
What Made it Through
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HB 9 - Provides for outcomes-based funding for higher
education. Requires the coordinating board to
incorporate undergraduate student success measures
achieved in “The One” biennium in its formula funding
recommendations for the following biennium.
HB 33 - Requires IHEs to compile a course schedule list
and a list of required and recommended textbooks for
each course offered each semester.
HB 34 Requires public high schools to incorporate
instruction in methods of paying for postsecondary
education and training.
What Made it Through
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HB 992 - The bill provides that in counting the number of courses
dropped, a general academic teaching institution may not count a
course dropped while the student was enrolled in a public junior college
if the student transferred to the institution after earning from another
institution at least 30 semester credit hours or earning an associate
degree.
(Vetoed by Perry 17 June 2011 - A similar bill from the last session was
also vetoed by the governor)
HB 1163 - Grants tuition and fee exemptions at public institutions of
higher education for certain peace officers and firefighters.
What Made it Through
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HB 1244 - Amends the law relating to the assessment of academic skills of
entering undergraduate students to determine readiness to enroll in
freshman academic coursework. It deletes the provision authorizing
institutions to adopt more stringent assessment standards than those
prescribed by the Coordinating Board.
HB 1341 - The law governing the option to pay by installment will only
apply to the payment of tuition and mandatory fees, as opposed to nonmandatory fees. Also, authorizes the governing board to establish
payment dates instead of requiring either the full payment or the first
installment payment to be paid before the beginning of the semester.
What Made it Through
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• HB 1557 (Reynolds)/HB 1816 (Howard, Charlie)/SB 1107
(Davis, Wendy): Requires a vaccination against bacterial
meningitis for all first-time students of public, private, or
independent institutions of higher education, including
transfer students.
• SB 1179 Eliminates a variety of reports for state agencies
including several relating to institutions of higher education.
• SB 162 Requires the Co-Board to prepare a recommendation
for a statewide developmental education plan which would
give primary responsibility to the community colleges –
report is due 12/2012
What Made it Through
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 HB 3025 Aims at facilitating student transfers within the Texas higher
education system and improving timely student graduation from
institutions of higher education with mandated degree plans and
reverse transfer. (Eliminated from the bill were provisions for a 36 hour
core, 60 hour limit to Associate Degrees, transfer of career college
courses, fixed T&F’s for four years, and guaranteed admission with an
Associate Degree.)
 SB 32 Amends the subchapter of the Education Code containing the
exemptions, waivers and other benefits relating to tuition and fees.
 SB 36 The bill amends the Texas Success Initiative program to
mandate assessment of student advising programs.
What Made it Through
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SB 149 : Grants TEA commissioner authority to develop
rules regarding college credit program and directs CB
commissioner and institutions of higher education to share
data relating to school districts. TEA reporting rules
effective fall 2011 – CB reporting rules effective fall 2013
SB 176 Expands eligibility for tuition rebates to certain
students who earned college credit hours while in high
school by exempting those from inclusion in the three-credit
hour limit.
SB 639 Amends the law providing tuition and fee
exemptions for certain military veterans and dependents.
What Affects Us Now?
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• SB 176 - $1,000 Tuition Rebate – This bill is effective
immediately and affects August 2011 graduates, exempting dual
credit hours and ROTC hours (June 2011)
• SB 1107 – Meningitis Vaccination – This bill requires all
new students to document an immunization administered 10
days prior to the start of a semester (Spring 2012)
• HB 3025 – Required Degree Plan & Reverse Transfer –
This bill requires each new student to file a degree plan by their
second semester or after earning 45 hours and transfer students
must be given the opportunity to reverse transfer in order to
earn an Associates Degree (Fall 2011)
• HB 2758 – Mandatory Emergency Alert Systems – This
bill requires all schools to implement an emergency email
and/or phone alert system (Spring 2012)