LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 48, as amended, Portantino. Private postsecondary education:
California Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009.
(1) The former Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education
Reform Act of 1989, which became inoperative on July 1, 2007, and was
repealed on January 1, 2008, was administered by the Bureau for
Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education in the Department of
Consumer Affairs. The former act generally effectuated legislative
intent to ensure minimum standards of instructional quality and
institutional stability in private postsecondary educational
institutions and required the bureau, among other things, to review
and investigate all institutions, programs, and courses of
instruction approved under the act.
The former act also established the Private Postsecondary and
Vocational Education Administration Fund and the continuously
appropriated Student Tuition Recovery Fund, both of which were
repealed on July 1, 2008. The former act specified that certain
violations of its provisions were subject to civil penalties and that
certain willful violations of the act were punishable as crimes.
This bill would recast and revise the former act as the California
Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009. The bill would
establish the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education in the
Department of Consumer Affairs as a successor agency to the former
bureau. The bill would appropriate the sum of $580,000 from the
Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education Administration Fund to
the bureau for the purpose of funding 5 education administration
positions, and would continue that fund in existence and rename it as
the Private Postsecondary Education Administration Fund. The bill
also would continue the existence of the continuously appropriated
Student Tuition Recovery Fund, would provide that certain violations
of the new act are punishable as infractions, and would provide
procedures for the resolution of student claims under the former act.
The bill would impose reporting requirements on the bureau, the
Bureau of State Audits, and the Legislative Analyst's Office
regarding compliance with the act. The bill would appropriate
$270,000 from the Private Postsecondary Education Administration Fund
to the Bureau of State Audits to cover its costs of implementing the
reporting requirements.
The bill would impose various fees in connection with a private
postsecondary institution's approval to operate under the act and
would require those fees to be deposited in the Private Postsecondary
Education Administration Fund, for expenditure, upon appropriation
by the Legislature, by the bureau for the purposes of the act.
The bill would exempt various institutions from most of the
provisions of the act, including an exemption for an institution that
is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and
Universities, Western Association of Schools and Colleges, or the
Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, Western
Association of Schools and Colleges and, until January 1, 2016, an
institution that is accredited by a regional accrediting agency
recognized by the United States Department of Education.
The bill would repeal the California Private Postsecondary
Education Act of 2009 on January 1, 2016. The bill would, upon the
repeal of the act, continue the Student Tuition Recovery Fund in
existence under the administration of the Department of Consumer
Affairs and would continuously appropriate the moneys remaining in
that fund to the department for specified purposes.
Because this bill would establish new infractions, the bill would
impose a state-mandated local program.
(2) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Sections 27
and 146 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by SB 819, to
be operative only if SB 819 and this bill are both chaptered and
become effective on or before January 1, 2010, and this bill is
chaptered last.
The bill also would incorporate additional changes in Sections 101
and 149 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by AB 1535 and
SB 819, to be operative only if this bill and one or both of the
other bills are chaptered and become effective on or before January
1, 2010, and this bill is chaptered last.
(2)
(3) The California Constitution requires the state to
reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs
mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for
making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.