Bill Text: CA SB489 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Private postsecondary education: Private Postsecondary

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-02-01 - Returned to Secretary of Senate pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [SB489 Detail]

Download: California-2009-SB489-Introduced.html

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BILL NUMBER: SB 489	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator Liu

                        FEBRUARY 26, 2009

   An act to add Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 94700) to Part 59
of Division 10 of Title 3 of the Education Code, relating to private
postsecondary education.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 489, as introduced, Liu. Private postsecondary education:
Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education Reform and Student
Consumer Protection Act of 2009.
   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repealed on January 1, 2008, was administered by the Bureau for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.
   This bill would enact the Private Postsecondary and Vocational
Education Reform and Student Consumer Protection Act of 2009, which
would express the intent of the Legislature to, among other things,
provide for the protection, education, and welfare of California's
citizens, postsecondary educational institutions, and students, as
specified.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 94700) is added to
Part 59 of Division 10 of Title 3 of the Education Code, to read:
      CHAPTER 7.  THE PRIVATE POSTSECONDARY AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
REFORM AND STUDENT CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT OF 2009


   94700.  This chapter shall be known, and may be cited, as the
Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education Reform and Student
Consumer Protection Act of 2009.
   94705.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
   (a) It is the intent of the Legislature to promote the effective
integration of private postsecondary education into all aspects of
California's educational system and to foster and improve the
educational programs and services of private postsecondary
educational institutions while protecting the citizens of the state
from fraudulent or substandard operations.
   (b) It is further the intent of the Legislature to recognize the
enormous diversity and quality of California's private postsecondary
educational expertise, with its approximately 1,600 privately
supported institutions of academic and vocational education. These
private colleges and universities play an important role in training
California's workforce, enrolling approximately 400,000 students
annually.
   (c)  It is further the intent of the Legislature to assure that
graduates of state approved colleges and universities are eligible to
sit for state licensure exams provided by the Board of Behavioral
Sciences and the Board of Psychology.
   (d) It is further the intent of the Legislature to provide for the
protection, education, and welfare of California's citizens,
postsecondary educational institutions, and students by providing for
all of the following:
   (1) Ensuring minimum standards of instructional quality and
institutional stability for all students in all types of
institutions, and thereby encouraging the recognition by public and
private institutions of completed coursework and degrees and diplomas
issued by private institutions in order to provide students equal
opportunities for equal accomplishment and ability.
   (2) Establishing minimum standards concerning the quality of
education, ethical and business practices, health and safety, and
fiscal responsibility to provide protection against substandard,
transient, unethical, deceptive, or fraudulent institutions and
practices.
   (3) Prohibiting the granting of false or misleading educational
credentials.
   (4) Prohibiting misleading literature, advertising, solicitation,
or representations by private educational institutions or their
agents.
   (5) Recognizing the importance of providing adequate funding
through application and renewal fees and federal funding for the
veteran's approval process, in order to support the state's
activities in implementing this chapter.
   (6) Protecting consumers and students against fraud,
misrepresentation, or other practices that may lead to an improper
loss of funds paid for educational costs, whether financed through
personal resources or state and federal student financial aid.
   (7) Establishing a path for the development of institutions
offering fields of study or methods of instruction and innovative
educational delivery systems that have not been previously
recognized, in order to encourage those institutions to become fully
approved institutions.
   (8) Recognizing and encouraging quality nongovernmental
accreditation, while not ceding to that or any other nongovernmental
process the responsibility for state oversight for purposes of
approval, if the accreditation process fails either to protect
minimum standards of quality or to acknowledge legitimate innovative
methods in postsecondary education.
   (9) Providing an administrative agency staffed by individuals who
are knowledgeable about private academic and vocational education,
and charged with the responsibility of developing policies and
procedures for the oversight and approval of private postsecondary
and vocational education. The administrative agency should have
responsibility for managing a broadly construed policy and planning
process that seeks to improve state accountability for private
postsecondary and vocational education and to improve the
articulation of private postsecondary and vocational education with
the public and independent postsecondary educational community. The
administrative agency should provide the leadership and planning
needed to maintain and develop a strong private sector within the
public and independent postsecondary educational community.