SECTION 13.473. Base Tier Allotment

(a) Board staff will calculate Base Tier funding for each public junior college district (district) as the greater of the Instruction and Operations (I&O) amount minus Local Share and zero.

(b) A district's I&O amount is the sum of the number of Weighted Full-Time Student Equivalents (Weighted FTSE) enrolled at the district multiplied by the Basic Allotment amount of $1,275 and the district's total Contact Hour Funding as determined by the Coordinating Board.

(1) Weighted FTSE for each district is the sum of the district's full-time student equivalents weighted for the student characteristics under subparagraph (B) of this paragraph and the scale adjustment as provided in Texas Education Code, §130A.054.

(A) For purposes of determining annual Weighted FTSE as a component of Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 formula funding under this section, a district's full-time student equivalents (FTSE) is equal to the sum of:

(i) the total semester credit hours in which for-credit students were enrolled at the district as of the census dates of all academic semesters or other academic terms that were reported for FY 2022, divided by 30; and

(ii) the total contact hours in which continuing education students were enrolled at the district as of the census dates of all academic semesters or other academic terms that were reported for FY 2022, divided by 900.

(B) The Coordinating Board shall additively weight the calculation of Weighted FTSE as follows:

(i) if a student is classified as economically disadvantaged during FY 2022, FTSE generated by that student shall have an additional value of 25%;

(ii) if a student is classified as academically disadvantaged during FY 2022, FTSE generated by that student shall have an additional value of 25%; and

(iii) if a student is classified as an adult learner during FY 2022, FTSE generated by that student shall have an additional value of 50%.

(C) The Coordinating Board calculates a district's scale adjustment weight as the greater of the difference between 5,000 and the number of FTSE as defined in subparagraph (A) of this paragraph multiplied by .40, and zero.

(2) For the purpose of calculating FY 2024 formula funding amounts, Coordinating Board staff will calculate Contact Hour Funding for a public junior college district by first multiplying the number of reported certified fundable contact hours generated by the district in each discipline during the 2023 Base Year, consisting of the Summer I and II 2022, Fall 2022, and Spring 2023 academic terms, by the average cost of delivery per contact hour for each discipline respectively as described in the Report of Fundable Operating Expenses for FY 2022 in accordance with subchapter R, §13.524(c) of this chapter (relating to Required Reporting) and summing across all disciplines. Contact hours attributable to students enrolled in a junior-level or senior-level course are weighed in the same manner as a lower division course in a corresponding field. That sum will then be multiplied by 21.3%, which is a rate derived from appropriations made for Base Tier Funding in the 2024-2025 General Appropriations Act, to calculate the district's Contact Hour Funding.

(c) For the purpose of calculating FY 2024 formula funding amounts, the Local Share for each public junior college district equals the sum of:

(1) the estimated amount of revenue that would have been generated by the district if it had assessed a $0.05 maintenance and operations ad valorem tax on each $100 of taxable property value in its taxing district, as reported under subchapter R, §13.524 of this chapter, which the Coordinating Board will calculate as the district's current tax collection for FY 2022 multiplied by the ratio of the maintenance and operations tax rate to the total tax rate, divided by the product of the maintenance and operations tax rate and 100 and multiplied by five; and

(2) the amount of tuition and fee revenue calculated as the sum of:

(A) the district's FY 2022 FTSE as defined in subsection (b)(1)(A) of this section, except for semester credit hours derived from students enrolled in dual credit or dual enrollment courses, multiplied by $2,828, which is the FY 2021 statewide average of tuition and fees assessed to full-time students residing within the district of the public junior college they attend; and

(B) the total semester credit hours of dual credit or dual enrollment courses in which students were enrolled as of the census dates of all academic semesters or other academic terms that were reported in FY 2022, multiplied by $55, which is the dollar amount per dual credit semester credit hour determined by the Coordinating Board pursuant to Texas Education Code, §28.0095.

Source Note: The provisions of this §13.473 adopted to be effective February 15, 2024, 49 TexReg 671