Bill Text: TX HB2440 | 2011-2012 | 82nd Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating to the creation of a Texas Junior College System office.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-03-14 - Referred to Higher Education [HB2440 Detail]
Download: Texas-2011-HB2440-Introduced.html
82R10755 JRJ-D | ||
By: Pitts | H.B. No. 2440 |
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relating to the creation of a Texas Junior College System office. | ||
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
SECTION 1. Chapter 130, Education Code, is amended by | ||
adding Subchapter K to read as follows: | ||
SUBCHAPTER K. TEXAS JUNIOR COLLEGE SYSTEM OFFICE | ||
Sec. 130.301. APPLICABILITY. This subchapter supersedes a | ||
conflicting statute outside this subchapter unless this subchapter | ||
or the outside statute expressly provides otherwise. | ||
Sec. 130.302. TEXAS JUNIOR COLLEGE SYSTEM; ROLE AND | ||
MISSION. (a) The Texas Junior College System office oversees Texas | ||
public junior colleges. | ||
(b) Public junior colleges are two-year institutions | ||
primarily serving the residents of their local taxing districts and | ||
service areas in Texas and offering vocational, technical, and | ||
academic courses for certification or associate degrees. A public | ||
junior college shall also provide continuing education, remedial | ||
and compensatory education consistent with open-admission | ||
policies, and programs of counseling and guidance. | ||
(c) The Texas Junior College System shall contribute to the | ||
educational and economic development of the State of Texas by | ||
ensuring that each institution in the system insists on excellence | ||
in all academic pursuits, including instruction, research, and | ||
public service. Faculty research, using the facilities provided | ||
for and consistent with the primary function of each institution in | ||
the system, shall be encouraged. Funding for research should be | ||
obtained from private sources, competitively acquired sources, | ||
local taxes, and other local resources. | ||
Sec. 130.303. DEFINITIONS. In this subchapter: | ||
(1) "Coordinating board" means the Texas Higher | ||
Education Coordinating Board. | ||
(2) "Director" means the executive director of the | ||
Texas Junior College System office. | ||
(3) "General academic teaching institution," | ||
"institution of higher education," and "private or independent | ||
institution of higher education" have the meanings assigned by | ||
Section 61.003. | ||
(4) "System" means the Texas Junior College System. | ||
Sec. 130.304. FUNDING; GIFTS AND GRANTS. (a) The | ||
legislature shall appropriate funds for administration of the Texas | ||
Junior College System. | ||
(b) The system may solicit and accept gifts and grants from | ||
any public or private source. | ||
(c) Notwithstanding Section 61.059, the system shall devise | ||
and establish funding formulas to guide the legislature in making | ||
appropriations to public junior colleges in a manner that balances | ||
the amount of state funding provided to public junior colleges with | ||
the benefits contributed by public junior colleges to the state. | ||
Funding shall be allocated to junior college districts in | ||
accordance with the extent to which those districts meet the goals | ||
in the system's strategic plan. The director must ensure that the | ||
measurements used to allocate funds are predictable and clearly | ||
communicated. | ||
Sec. 130.305. SYSTEM OFFICE; EXECUTIVE OFFICER. (a) The | ||
system office shall provide oversight and coordination of the | ||
activities of each public junior college. | ||
(b) The coordinating board shall appoint an executive | ||
director of the system and determine the executive director's | ||
tenure, salary, and duties. | ||
(c) The director shall recommend a plan for the organization | ||
of the system and employ not more than 10 full-time employees to | ||
administer the system. | ||
(d) The director is responsible to the coordinating board | ||
for the general management and success of the system, and the | ||
coordinating board shall cooperate with the director to carry out | ||
that responsibility. | ||
(e) In addition to other powers and duties provided by this | ||
code or other law, the system office shall recommend necessary | ||
policies and rules to the coordinating board and to the governing | ||
board of each junior college district to ensure compliance with all | ||
laws and to provide uniformity in data collection and financial | ||
reporting procedures. | ||
Sec. 130.306. DUTIES OF SYSTEM OFFICE. The system office | ||
shall: | ||
(1) formulate a comprehensive strategic plan for | ||
junior college districts that clearly links statewide goals to | ||
specific targets for each district; | ||
(2) establish common transfer standards between | ||
public junior colleges and general academic teaching institutions; | ||
(3) develop common core courses that are completely | ||
transferable to all general academic teaching institutions; | ||
(4) oversee dual credit agreements to ensure | ||
transferability to upper level institutions of higher education; | ||
(5) allocate the state's formula funds to junior | ||
college districts in a manner consistent with statute; | ||
(6) define clear goals and milestones for junior | ||
college districts and allocate any available performance funding in | ||
pursuit of those goals; | ||
(7) provide direct training or facilitate the | ||
provision of training to junior college district board members and | ||
executive staff on matters ranging from best practices for fiscal | ||
accountability to increasing transparency; | ||
(8) represent the interests of junior college | ||
districts before the legislature and the governor, including | ||
funding requests, and represent the state's interests to the | ||
districts; | ||
(9) establish and enforce rules of fiscal | ||
accountability for junior college districts, including minimum | ||
internal audit standards; | ||
(10) represent junior college districts officially in | ||
all negotiations with state and federal entities; | ||
(11) be responsible for the allocation of all or part | ||
of federal financial aid for public junior colleges; | ||
(12) act as an information resource to the | ||
legislature, including providing the legislature with impact | ||
statements and fiscal note data on the effects of proposed | ||
legislation, as well as analysis of proposed substantive policy | ||
actions affecting public junior colleges; | ||
(13) conduct research, using system office resources | ||
or by contract, on issues critical to public junior colleges and the | ||
state, including transfer facilitation and dual credit programs; | ||
and | ||
(14) recommend changes to junior college district | ||
service areas and taxing district boundaries as necessary to | ||
reflect statewide interests. | ||
Sec. 130.307. CONTRACTS WITH INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER | ||
EDUCATION. The system may enter into a contract or other agreement | ||
with an institution of higher education or a private or independent | ||
institution of higher education for joint participation in any | ||
program that may benefit the State of Texas. | ||
Sec. 130.308. POSTSECONDARY WORKFORCE EDUCATION WORKGROUP. | ||
The system office may establish and coordinate a workgroup composed | ||
of representatives of the Texas Workforce Commission, the Texas | ||
Education Agency, the coordinating board, and industry to make | ||
recommendations regarding curriculum alignment and consistency in | ||
postsecondary workforce education. | ||
SECTION 2. Section 130.0011, Education Code, is repealed. | ||
SECTION 3. (a) The Texas Higher Education Coordinating | ||
Board shall establish the Texas Junior College System office not | ||
later than January 1, 2013. | ||
(b) Beginning with the state fiscal biennium beginning | ||
September 1, 2013, all functions of the Texas Junior College System | ||
office described by Subchapter K, Chapter 130, Education Code, as | ||
added by this Act, performed by the Texas Higher Education | ||
Coordinating Board before the effective date of this Act are | ||
transferred to the Texas Junior College System office if not | ||
previously transferred to that office. | ||
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2011. |