BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 834
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Date of Hearing: June 24, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
Das Williams, Chair
AB 834 (Williams) - As Amended: May 12, 2014
SUBJECT : Private postsecondary education: School Performance
Fact Sheets.
SUMMARY : Authorizes a law school accredited by the American
Bar Association, and owned by an institution operating under the
Bureau of Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE) within the
Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA), to satisfy the disclosure
requirements of the School Performance Fact Sheet (SPFS) through
alternative means. Specifically, this bill :
1)Authorizes a law school to satisfy the SPFS disclosure through
alternative means if the law school meets all of the following
requirements:
a) Accredited by the Council of the Section of Legal
Education and Admissions to the Bar of the ABA;
b) Owned by an institution authorized to operate by the
BPPE;
c) Reports graduate salary information and other
information to the National Association for Law Placement
(NALP); and,
d) Approved to operate by the BPPE.
2)The alternative SPFS requires disclosures to students pursuant
to all of the following:
a) The law school must comply with disclosure requirements
of Standard 509 of the American Bar Association's Standards
and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools;
b) The law school must provide completion rates, placement
rates, bar passage rates, and salary and wage information
of graduates to prospective students prior to enrollment
through the law school application process administered by
the Law School Admission Council;
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c) The law school must provide to prospective students any
additional information required to be reported on the SPFS
that is not reported pursuant to the aforementioned,
including, but not limited to, the most recent three-year
cohort default rate (disaggregated) reported by the United
States Department of Education for the law school and the
percentage of enrolled students receiving federal student
loans.
d) The law school must provide the information to
prospective students by clearly posting the information in
a conspicuous location on the law school's Internet Web
site; and must annually provide the information to the
BPPE.
EXISTING LAW requires institutions approved by the BPPE to
provide prospective students a SPFS that contains specified
information, including: completion rates; placement rates;
license examination passage rates; salary and wage information;
a description of how this information in calculated; a statement
as to where a reader can obtain a list of employment positions
and salary sources; specified statements; and, if the
institution participates in federal financial aid programs, the
institutions cohort default rate and percentage of enrolled
students receiving federal loans.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, a negligible fiscal impact was determined pursuant to
Senate Rule 28.8.
COMMENTS : Concurrence hearing . This bill contained policies
relative to energy and water efficiency when passed by the
Assembly on May 24, 2013. While in the Senate, the original
contents of this bill were removed and the bill was amended to
address disclosures to students attending private law schools.
The policy currently contained in this bill was heard by the
Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee
and the Senate Education Committee. The bill was approved by
the Senate on June 19, 2014, by a vote of 34-0.
Background . The US Department of Education (USDE) requirement
that an institution have "state authorization" in order to be
eligible for Title IV federal student financial aid is prompting
at least one law school in California, currently exempt from
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BPPE approval, to seek BPPE approval to maintain Title IV
eligibility. As a result, that school will be subject to the
SPFS requirements. The SPFS was designed to ensure that
prospective students could make informed decisions when
enrolling in an institution; by requiring every BPPE-approved
institution to provide similarly calculated data in an
established format, students would be able to easily compare
educational program outcomes.
Purpose of this bill . This bill is designed to address an
unanticipated problem for Western State College of Law at Argosy
University (Western State), owned by Education Management
Corporation (EDMC), and ensure that students attending this
institution do not receive duplicative and potentially
conflicting data regarding enrollment and outcomes, simply
because the institution is no longer exempt like all other law
schools. According to the Author, the SPFS requirements would
require different calculations than those established by the
American Bar Association (ABA) and National Association for Law
Placement (NALP) and would ultimately provide less data to
students than they are already provided through the Law School
Admission Council (LSAC) application process.
Alternative law school disclosures . Under ABA Standard 509, ABA
accredited law schools are required to provide detailed student
enrollment and graduate outcome information to prospective
students and to the general public. Law schools also report
employment and salary outcomes for graduates to NALP.
Prospective students access this data through the law school
application process administered by the LSAC. Through the LSAC
website, students are provided a single point of entry to access
this data in order to make comparative analysis of the law
schools to which they are considering applying.
Arguments in support . According to EDMC, parent company of
Western State, Western State is a private law school fully
accredited by the ABA and located in Fullerton, California.
Founded in 1966, Western State has one of the highest Bar
passage rates in the state. If Western State becomes the only
law school to seek BPPE approval, the school would be the only
law school providing students with a Fact Sheet, potentially
undermining a primary purpose of the SPFS which is to allow
students to make apples-to-apples comparisons of institutional
outcomes prior to enrollment. According to Public Advocates,
applicants to California's private law schools deserve to attend
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academic institutions that will be the most likely to offer them
a high quality education and position them for success. But the
information about prospective law schools should be easily
accessible and obvious. Aligning the requirements for
disclosure by law schools in AB 834 will further this goal and
make access to information that can be compared by students as
they make their choices about where to prepare as lawyers.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Education Management Corporation
Public Advocates
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Laura Metune / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960