Sec. 130.310. FUNDING. (a) Except as provided by Subsection (b), a degree program created under this subchapter may be funded solely by a public junior college's proportionate share of state appropriations under Section 130.003, local funds, and private sources. This subsection does not require the legislature to appropriate state funds to support a degree program created under this subchapter. The coordinating board shall weigh contact hours attributable to students enrolled in a junior-level or senior-level course offered under this subchapter used to determine a public junior college's proportionate share of state appropriations under Section 130.003 in the same manner as a lower division course in a corresponding field.

(b) Notwithstanding Subsection (a), in its recommendations to the legislature relating to state funding for public junior colleges, the coordinating board shall recommend that a public junior college authorized to offer baccalaureate degree programs under Section 130.303(a) or 130.304 receive substantially the same state support for junior-level and senior-level courses in the fields of applied science, applied technology, dental hygiene, and nursing offered under this subchapter as that provided to a general academic teaching institution for substantially similar courses. For purposes of this subsection, in determining the contact hours attributable to students enrolled in a junior-level or senior-level course in the field of applied science, applied technology, dental hygiene, or nursing offered under this subchapter used to determine a public junior college's proportionate share of state appropriations under Section 130.003, the coordinating board shall weigh those contact hours as necessary to provide the junior college the appropriate level of state support to the extent state funds for those courses are included in the appropriations. This subsection does not prohibit the legislature from directly appropriating state funds to support junior-level and senior-level courses to which this subsection applies.

(c) A public junior college may not charge a student enrolled in a baccalaureate degree program offered under this subchapter tuition and fees in an amount that exceeds the amount of tuition and fees charged by the junior college to a similarly situated student who is enrolled in an associate degree program in a corresponding field. This subsection does not apply to tuition and fees charged for a baccalaureate degree program in the field of applied science or applied technology previously offered as part of a pilot project and offered by a public junior college authorized to offer baccalaureate degree programs under Section 130.303(a).

Transferred, redesignated and amended from Education Code, Section 130.0012(g) by Acts 2017, 85th Leg., R.S., Ch. 766 (S.B. 2118), Sec. 11, eff. June 12, 2017.