BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS
Senator Jim Nielsen, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 1059 Hearing Date: 4/12/16
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|Author: |Monning |
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|Version: |2/16/16 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Wade Teasdale |
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Subject: Postsecondary education: Title 38 awards
DESCRIPTION
Summary:
Exempts law schools accredited by the State Bar of California
Committee on Bar Examiners from requirements that they be
accredited by an accrediting agency recognized by the United
States Department of Education in order to receive Title 38
veterans benefits.
Existing law:
1) Establishes the Title 38 Funding Program (Title 38 Program)
under the administration of the California State Approving
Agency for Veterans Education (CSAAVE) and requires CSAAVE to
approve qualifying institutions desiring to enroll veterans
or persons eligible for Title 38 awards. In order to be a
qualifying institution, requires an institution offering
degrees to comply with the following requirements:
a) Provide information (including via a website link) on
where to access California license examination passage
rates for the most recent available year from graduates of
its undergraduate programs leading to employment for which
passage of a California licensing examination is required,
if that data is electronically available through the
website of a California licensing or regulatory agency.
b) Provide evidence of accreditation by an accrediting
agency recognized by the United States Department of
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Education (USDE) of the institution and of all degree
programs. For unaccredited degree-granting institutions
participating in the Title 38 Program as of January 1,
2015, obtain and provide evidence to CSAAVE of its
candidacy or pre-accreditation status, with an accrediting
agency recognized by USDE by January 1, 2016 in order to
maintain eligibility for the program and obtain and provide
evidence to CSAAVE of accreditation from the accrediting
agency with which it had candidacy or pre-accreditation
status by January 1, 2017 in order to maintain eligibility.
1) Authorizes the Board of Trustees of the State Bar of
California (Board) to establish an examining committee
(Committee of Bar Examiners, CBE) to examine all applicants
for admission to practice law, administer the requirements
for admission
to practice law and certify to the Supreme Court for admission
to the bar those applicants who fulfill the requirements.
2) Provides that subject to the approval of the Board, the CBE
may adopt such reasonable rules and regulations as may be
necessary or advisable for the purposes of making effective
the qualifications for admission to the practice of law in
California.
3) In order to be certified to the Supreme Court for admission
and a license to practice law, requires a person, who has not
been admitted to practice law in a sister state, United
States jurisdiction, possession, territory, or dependency or
in a foreign country to, among other requirements:
a) Before beginning the study of law, complete at least two
years of college work, attained in apparent intellectual
ability the equivalent of at least two years of college
work by taking any examinations in subject matters and
achieving the scores as are prescribed by the CBE.
b) Register with CBE as law student within 90 days after
beginning the study of law.
c) Have been conferred a juris doctor (J.D.) degree or a
bachelor of laws degree by a State Bar-accredited law
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school or American Bar Association (ABA) accredited law
school - or - studied law diligently and in good faith for
at least four years in a law school that is authorized or
approved to confer professional degrees and requires
classroom attendance of its students for a minimum of 270
hours a year or demonstrates education, experience and
qualifications based on a legal education in a foreign
state or country or studied law in a law office in
California and under the personal supervision of a member
of the State Bar who is, and for at least the last five
years continuously has been, engaged in the active practice
of law or studied law in the chambers and under the
personal supervision of a judge of a court of record of
this state or studied law at a correspondence law school
authorized or approved to confer professional degrees by
this state, which requires 864 hours of preparation and
study per year for four years or any combination of these
methods.
1) Requires the CBE to adopt rules for the regulation and
oversight of unaccredited law schools that are required to be
authorized to operate as a business in California and to have
an administrative office in California, including
correspondence schools, that are not State Bar-accredited or
ABA accredited with the goal of ensuring consumer protection
and a legal education at an affordable cost.
2) Provides that the CBE is responsible for the approval,
regulation, and oversight of degree-granting law schools that
exclusively offer bachelors, masters, or doctorate degrees in
law, such as a J.D.
3) Requires a law school that is not State Bar-accredited to
provide students with a disclosure statement signed by the
student containing all of the following information:
a) The school is not accredited. However, in addition, if
the school has been approved by other agencies, that fact
may be so stated.
b) Where the school has not been in operation for 10 years,
the assets and liabilities of the school unless the school
has had prior affiliation with another school that has been
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in operation more than 10 years, has been under the control
of another school that has been in operation more than 10
years, or has been a successor to a school in operation
more than 10 years.
c) The number and percentage of students who have taken and
who have passed the first-year law student's examination
(Baby Bar) and the final bar examination in the previous
five years, or since the establishment of the school,
whichever time is less, which shall include only those
students who have been certified by the school to take the
examinations.
d) The number of legal volumes in the library.
e) The educational background, qualifications, and
experience of the faculty, and whether or not the faculty
members and administrators (e.g., the dean) are members of
the California State Bar.
f) The ratio of faculty to students for the previous five
years or since the establishment of the school, whichever
time is less.
g) Whether or not the school has applied for accreditation,
and, if so, the date of application and whether or not that
application has been withdrawn, is currently pending, or
has been finally denied.
h) That the education provided by the school may not
satisfy the requirements of other states for the practice
of law.
1) Exempts law schools that are ABA accredited and State
Bar-accredited from the California Private Postsecondary
Education Act (Act) and oversight by the Bureau for Private
Postsecondary Education (BPPE).
2) Requires unaccredited degree-granting institutions currently
approved by BPPE to submit an accreditation plan to the
Bureau by July 1, 2015, to obtain pre-accreditation by July
1, 2017, to obtain accreditation by July 1, 2020, and to
comply with various student disclosure and visiting committee
review requirements.
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3) Prohibits an institution approved by BPPE from offering an
associate, baccalaureate, master's, or doctoral degree
without disclosing to prospective students prior to
enrollment whether the institution or the degree program is
unaccredited and any known limitation of the degree,
including, but not limited to, whether a graduate of the
degree program will be eligible to sit for the applicable
licensure exam in California and other states, a statement
that reads: "A degree program that is unaccredited or a
degree from an unaccredited institution is not recognized for
some employment positions, including, but not limited to,
positions with the State of California." And that a student
enrolled in an unaccredited institution is not eligible for
federal financial aid programs.
This bill:
Exempts law schools that are State Bar-accredited from having to
receive accreditation by an accrediting agency recognized by
USDE in order to participate in the Title 38 Program.
BACKGROUND
Title 38
The GI Bill, signed in 1944 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt
gave "servicemen and women the opportunity of resuming their
education or technical training after discharge, or of taking a
refresher or retrainer course, not only without tuition charge
up to $500 per school year, but with the right to receive a
monthly living allowance while pursuing their studies."
Educational benefits are currently available both to active duty
personnel and veterans through two key programs: the Tuition
Assistance program administered and run by the Department of
Defense (DOD) and the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance
Act administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs (USDVA).
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in FY
2011, 923,836 U.S. service members received over $10 billion in
assistance from educational benefit programs administered by the
USDVA, with 88,420 of them living in California.
CSAAVE
The former Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational
Education (BPPVE) used to serve as the approval agency for
California institutions attended by veterans using Title 38
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monies under a contract with the USDVA. When BPPVE expired,
these duties were transferred to the California Department of
Veterans Affairs (CalVet) which now provides oversight of
postsecondary education programs through its subsidiary CSAAVE.
CSAAVE is federally funded and operates under an annual
reimbursement contract with the USDVA. In its role as the
approval agency, the primary function of CSAAVE is to review,
evaluate and approve quality educational and training programs
for veteran's benefits. CSAAVE is intended to approve colleges
and universities, vocational schools, business schools,
professional schools, and licensing and certification training
and tests, all of which must lead to an educational,
professional or vocational objective.
Recent Concerns and Scrutiny
Stemming from concerns about the experience of veterans at
private for-profit institutions and multiple reports and
hearings highlighting false and predatory advertising to
veterans and the potential lack of accountability for the
millions of dollars administered by the USDVA and Department of
Defense (DOD) spent at private postsecondary education
institutions in California if schools are not regulated, the
Legislature took steps in 2014 to increase accountability and
program quality of institutions receiving Title 38 monies. AB
2099 (Frazier, Chapter 676, Statutes of 2014) stipulated new
Title 38 veterans funding eligibility standards for
postsecondary institutions in California. All institutions now
must provide license examination passage rates to students, and
institutions that offer degrees must have institutional and
programmatic accreditation in order to receive Title 38 monies.
The bill also provided that, in order for a postsecondary
institution to be determined eligible to accept Title 38 monies,
determined by CSAAVE, the postsecondary institution, whether it
offers degrees or not, must either be a public school, a
nonprofit school, approved by the Bureau or be regionally
accredited. SB 1247 (Lieu, Chapter 840, Statutes of 2014)
prohibited an institution, beginning January 1, 2016, from
claiming an exemption from the California Private Postsecondary
Education Act and Bureau oversight if the institution is
approved to participate in the Title 38 Program.
Law School Approval by the State Bar
Most law schools in California are approved by the ABA, which
also deems them State Bar-accredited. The State Bar also
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"accredits" 20 law schools that are neither ABA accredited nor
accredited by an accrediting agency recognized by USDE pursuant
to rules adopted by the CBE and approved by the Board of the
State Bar. The role of the State Bar in accrediting law schools
goes back some 80 years when the Board first evaluated the
program of legal education at "fixed-facility" law schools in
the state at that time. Legislation in 1937, known as the Act
Governing Admission to Practice, subsequently established the
educational requirements for admission to the Bar which included
graduation from a law school accredited by the CBE that required
substantially the full-time of its students for three years,
graduation from a law school accredited by the CBE that required
only a portion of full-time students or studying law diligently
and in good faith for at least four years. The Legislation also
created the requirement that students, who did not attend a CBE
accredited law school, had to pass a preliminary examination as
determined by the CBE during the course of their law studies.
The State Bar enacted rules to implement the new authorities for
the CBE, relying primarily on cumulative Bar passage rate of a
specified percent to determine eligibility for State Bar
accreditation. However, CBE also retained the option to grant
accreditation, and could continue a law school's accreditation,
even if the school did not meet the standard (60 percent was the
last rate before CBE began relying on ABA passage rate
requirements), if a law school could demonstrate that it was
maintaining substantially the same standards of instruction,
facilities for study, admission requirements, and curriculum as
were maintained by CBE accredited law schools that met the CBE's
cumulative Bar examination pass rate standard. CBE further
attempted to enhance its accreditation standards beyond just
reliance on cumulative Bar passage rate to include quantitative
standards (that an accredited law school maintain a certain
minimum number of books in its law library, employ a minimum of
3 full-time instructors, and admit no more than 10 percent of
its student body as students who did not have at least two years
of college education), but was met with opposition from State
Bar-accredited law schools. CBE's final rules then required a
CBE accredited law school to have an adequate library, have an
adequately trained faculty devoting sufficient time to teaching
and consultation with students to ensure adequate personal
acquaintance and influence with the students and special
students could constitute up to one-third of its enrollment.
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Concerns about the quality of the legal education being offered
by California's unaccredited and correspondence law schools
resulted in the adoption of a Supreme Court Rule (former Rule
957), which required unaccredited and correspondence law
schools to register with CBE, comply with specified
requirements, and file specified reports. Continuing concerns
about the quality of education at unaccredited and
correspondence law schools led to further study of this issue
and a report recommending that only CBE and ABA school graduates
be allowed to qualify to take the Bar examination, however the
recommendation was never formally pursued in terms of statutory
or CBE rules. The State Bar further found in the mid-1980s that
some ABA-approved law schools and many CBE accredited law
schools faced declining Bar examination pass rates, declining
numbers of applicants for admission as well as serious financial
problems. These State Bar-accredited law schools were exempt
from any other regulation and oversight in California.
When the Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education Reform
Act of 1989 (Former Act) took effect, only ABA approved law
schools and State Bar law schools that were also WASC accredited
were authorized to continue an exemption from state regulation.
Beginning January 1, 1990, most State Bar-accredited law schools
were subject to concurrent regulation by the California Council
for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education (Council) and
the CBE. The Council promulgated regulations applicable to all
private postsecondary institutions, including private law
schools. The CBE and Council then worked together, given the
role CBE had in accrediting law schools, to ensure that CBE
focused on curriculum approval and content while the Council
focused on student protections and fair business practices.
State Bar-accredited law schools were then specifically exempted
from oversight under the BPPVE in 1997 in the Education Code
through language that mirrors current BPC § 6060.7 referenced
above. When the Former Act and BPPVE expired, BPC § 6060.7 took
effect and subsequently § 6046.7 gave CBE the express authority,
on and after January 1, 2008, to regulate and oversee
unaccredited law schools, including correspondence law schools,
that are neither ABA or State Bar-accredited.
The current rules governing State Bar accreditation of law
schools, which took effect in 2009, are contained in Division 2,
Accredited Law School Rules of Title 4, of the Admissions and
Educational Standards and provide the guidelines for the
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governance, administration, curriculum requirements, academic
and admission policies a school must abide by. They include:
1)Acknowledgement that CBE does not intervene in student-school
disputes.
2)The ability of CBE to provide information publicly, upon
written request (Rule 4.108 outlines that certain portions of
applications, summaries of inspection reports and portions of
annual reports may be made available upon written request).
3) Application requirements, including an inspection visit.
4)Annual compliance report requirements.
5)Self-study prior to a periodic inspection.
6)Notification to CBE of a major change.
7)Actions taken for noncompliance and action for termination of
accreditation.
COMMENT
Committee Comments :
This bill was approved by Senate Business, Professions and
Economic Development (9-0) on 4/4/2016. The BP&ED committee
analysis commented:
"Law schools have come under scrutiny throughout the nation
for high costs resulting in large amounts of student debt and
low Bar passage rates. A 2015 Los Angeles Times investigation
found that nearly 9 out of 10 students attending unaccredited
law schools drop out and that many are unable to pass the Baby
Bar, let alone complete the program to sit for the Bar
examination. These schools are not subject to Bar passage
requirements, nor are they required to meet program quality,
student disclosure, or student protection standards, but have
been eligible to enroll students utilizing Title 38 benefits.
"While the State Bar accreditation process may align with
other standards used for verification of law school program
quality and integrity, such as those by the ABA, the issue of
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student protections at law schools remains, as well as the
ability of the State Bar to provide quality oversight of
schools. The Author may wish to outline further criteria
demonstrating program quality to define law schools eligible
for continued participation in the Title 38 Program and may
wish to include a sunset date on these schools' continued
eligibility in order to allow the Legislature to further
review the performance and level of quality oversight of these
institutions receiving veterans financial aid benefits."
The author's office has stated that the BP&D Committee
suggestions were not a condition for approval, but that the
author intends to adopt all or some of the suggestions. The
author's office further indicates that it is likely that the
author will offer simple amendments at the 4/12/2016 Senate
Veterans Affairs Committee hearing, but that the amending
language has not been worked out in time to be addressed in this
analysis.
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Association of California Accredited Law Schools
Support:
Association of California-Accredited Law Schools
Cal Northern School of Law
Hartnell Community College District
Lincoln Law School of Sacramento
Monterey County Business Council
Trinity Law School
Numerous individuals, including:
- Hon. Leon Panetta, Chair, Panetta Institute/Former U.S.
Secretary of Defense
- Hon. Ryan Coonerty, Supervisor, County of Santa Cruz
- Hon. Ralph Rubio, Mayor, City of Seaside
- Karen D. Kadushin, Dean Emeritus, Monterey College of Law
- William T. Bare, Colonel, USAF (ret.), Director, Monterey
Veterans Transition Center
Oppose: None received
-- END --
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