Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Higher Tuition Waived Locally

Students from Arkansas and Oklahoma are now able to attend Texas A&M University at Texarkana at resident tuition rates.

On Tuesday, June 17, Texas Governor George Bush signed into law House Bill 1384 authored by Rep. Barry Telford of Dekalb.

The bill will take effect immediately and will be available to students attending second summer session at TAMU-T and who will register June 30 and July 1.

The bill impacts students living in states which border Bowie County.

The bill amends the education code to include upper level institutions in the section which allows students of Arkansas and Oklahoma to attend the public junior colleges Texarkana College at resident tuition rates. The amendment now allows students from those states also to attend an upper level instituion of higher education at in-state tuition rates.

As an example of the bill's impact, a non-resident undergraduate at TAMU-T this fall who would have expected to pay approximately tuition of $2,521 for the nine semester credit hours (SCH), which is considered a full load, will now pay the resident rate of $595 for the same course load.

Before passage of this new amendment, non-resident students in adjacent counties of Arkansas and Oklahoma or those who had 45 credit hours from Texarkana College were able to attend TAMU-T at in-state tuition.