BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 2086
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   May 12, 2010

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                      AB 2086 (Coto) - As Amended:  May 6, 2010 

          Policy Committee:                              Higher  
          EducationVote:9-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:               

           SUMMARY  

          This bill requires postsecondary education institutions that  
          participate in the Cal-Grant program to provide information on  
          accessing licensing examination rates for the most recent  
          graduates of programs leading to employment for which passing a  
          state licensing examination is required, if such data is  
          available through the internet from the licensing or regulatory  
          agency.  This bill also:

          1)Stipulates that "provides" may include placement of a website  
            address, labeled as an access point to the required data, on  
            the institution's website where enrollment data is also  
            located, or on enrollment applications or other program  
            materials provided to prospective students.

          2)Requires each postsecondary educational institution to certify  
            compliance with the above to the California Student Aid  
            Commission (CSAC).

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          1)Minor one-time costs for University of California (UC) and  
            California State University (CSU) campuses offering programs  
            leading to state licensure to provide the required website  
            addresses to licensing agency examination results, and minor  
            ongoing costs for the campuses to certify compliance with  
            these requirements to CSAC.

          2)Community college districts offering programs leading to state  
            licensure would incur minor non-reimbursable costs similar to  
            those for UC and CSU.








                                                                 AB 2086
                                                                  Page  2


           COMMENTS  

           1)Purpose  .  According to the author, students, parents,  
            taxpayers, policymakers, and employers should know if the  
            higher education institutions and programs they attend,  
            support, and/or finance are effective in terms of student  
            learning and imparting the skills necessary to be successful  
            in the workplace.  This bill, which is sponsored by Ed Voice,  
            is intended to ensure that one measure of the effectiveness of  
            postsecondary programs-the passage rates for professional  
            licensure examinations-is made publicly available by the  
            institutions.

           2)Licensing entities that publish data  :  This bill provides that  
            the data disclosure requirement is contingent upon the  
            licensing entity publishing that data.  It is unclear the  
            degree to which this requirement would ensure data is made  
            available to students and the public, as it does not appear  
            that many licensing entities currently disclose licensure  
            examination passage rates based on school of graduation.  The  
            Board of Registered Nursing (BRN), however, publishes a table,  
            categorizing by academic year and school of graduation, the  
            results of graduates who have taken the National Council  
            Licensure Examination.  

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081