BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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Date of Hearing: June 28, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS
Jacqui Irwin, Chair
SB
1059 (Monning) - As Amended June 21, 2016
SENATE VOTE: 36-0
SUBJECT: Postsecondary education: Title 38 awards
SUMMARY: Authorizes unaccredited law schools, as specified, to
participate in federal veteran's education benefits.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Authorizes an institution that obtains and provides evidence
to the California State Approving Agency for Veteran's
Education (CSAAVE) that it has been "accredited" by the
Committee of Bar Examiners, to receive approval from CSAAVE
for participation in Title 38 veteran's education benefits,
provided the institution does both of the following:
a) Provides disclosures to applicants of the school who are
eligible for federal Title 38 awards of the institution's
tuition costs, refund policies, class sizes, number of
faculty, attrition rates, bar passage data, and employment
outcomes of graduates; and,
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b) Is in compliance with all applicable CSAAVE rules and
regulations and is in good standing with the Committee of
Bar Examiners.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Requires the Committee of Bar Examiners (CBE) of the State Bar
of California to be responsible for the approval, regulation,
and oversight of degree-granting law schools, as specified;
and provides, among other outlined requirements, a person that
is authorized to practice law in California to complete an
educational component, which can be met through any of the
following (Business and Professions Code 6060 et. seq.):
a) Receipt of a juris doctor degree or a bachelor of laws
degree by a law school accredited by the CBE or by the
American Bar Association (ABA).
b) Studied law diligently and in good faith for at least
four years in any of the following manners:
i) 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.
ii) In a law office in this state and under the personal
supervision of a member of the State Bar of California
who is, and for at least the last five years continuously
has been, engaged in the active practice of law. It is
the duty of the supervising attorney to render any
periodic reports to the examining committee as the
committee may require.
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iii) In the chambers and under the personal supervision
of a judge of a court of record of this state. It is the
duty of the supervising judge to render any periodic
reports to the examining committee as the committee may
require.
iv) By instruction in law from 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.
v) By any combination of the aforementioned methods.
2)Requires CSAAVE, a federally funded agency that operates under
an annual reimbursement contract with the United States
Veteran's Affairs (VA), to review, evaluate and approve
educational and training programs for veteran's benefits.
Among other requirements for approval by CSAAVE, California
law requires an institution which grants academic degrees to
be accredited by an accrediting agency recognized by the U.S.
Department of Education (USDE). (Education Code Sections
67100, 67101, 67102).
FISCAL EFFECT: Negligible fiscal impact according to the Senate
Rule 28.8.
COMMENTS: This bill is double-referred and was heard by the
Assembly Higher Education Committee on prior to its hearing in
this Committee.
While a portion of that analysis is restated below, reading the
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complete bill analysis by the Higher Education Committee is
recommended for its expert and thorough discussion of the
accreditation and other issues presented by this bill in context
with higher education practices and models.
According to the Higher Education Committee:
Background. In response to concerns that unscrupulous
for-profit colleges were targeting veteran students in order
to access federal Title 38 education benefits, and leaving
students with high debt levels and low-value degrees or
certificates, the Legislature enacted AB 2099 (Frazier),
Chapter 676, Statutes of 2014.
AB 2099 required colleges approved by CSAAVE to (1) be
accredited by an accrediting agency recognized by the USDE, if
the institution grants academic degrees; (2) disclose
information regarding licensure examination passage rates to
prospective students, if applicable; and, (3) to be approved
by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (thereby
making their students eligible for a series of consumer
protections, including disclosures, complaint resolution, and
access to a tuition recovery fund) if the institution is a
for-profit college.
Purpose of this bill. According to the author, most law
schools in California are approved by the ABA, which is a
USDE-recognized accrediting agency. Due to the
cost-prohibitive nature of ABA's approval requirements, 19 law
schools in California, both non-profit and for-profit, have
instead opted to become accredited by the CBE. According to
the author, CBE-accredited law schools tend to attract a
different student population, including older, working
students, students with families, or those seeking a second
career and require part-time night courses in order to achieve
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a juris doctorate. The author notes, as further outlined
below, CBE-accreditation provides for review and oversight of
quality standards. CBE, however, is not recognized by the
USDE, and therefore CBE-accredited institutions do not met the
CSAAVE accreditation requirements established in AB 2099.
This bill would authorize CBE-accredited law schools to be
approved by CSAAVE for purposes of Title 38 veterans'
education benefits.
As noted above, though veteran students are typically a small
minority at these schools, they have allegedly been the subject
of disproportionate recruitment by the schools and unscrupulous
practices rooted in financial gain for the schools. The general
policy trend has been to increase oversight and protection of
all students attending for-profit schools and particularly for
veteran students. As the gatekeeper of veterans' education
benefits in California, CalVet as the CSAAVE has been a national
leader in this arena.
This committee has had more than one hearing focused in whole or
in part on Title 38 benefits, for-profit schools, and
accreditation. One challenging issue, among many, has been how
to evaluate the quality of education provided by the schools and
educate student consumers. The primary touchstone has been to
rely on accreditation by an academic accrediting body coupled
with disclosure to students of the outcomes, cost, etc. of
educational programs.
However, in California and elsewhere, colleges have closed
overnight without notice to students while maintaining current
accreditation and students have been unable to obtain credit for
their educational progress at another school, leaving them with
an unfinished degree program. There has been and continues to be
serious criticism aimed at some academic accreditation bodies
pertinent to the for-profit school industry. Just this month,
as reported by the "Inside Higher Ed" online industry
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publication:
The U.S. Department of Education has recommended the
termination of a controversial accreditor, which could
threaten access to federal financial aid for 243 institutions
-- many of them for-profits -- that enroll more than 800,000
students.
The department's extraordinary recommendation to eliminate the
Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, a
large national accreditor that was the gatekeeper for $4.76
billion in federal aid spending last year, follows widespread
criticism of ACICS's oversight of Corinthian Colleges.
The National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and
Integrity (NACIQI) soon will pass its decision back to the
U.S. Department of Education, which last week recommended
shutting down ACICS and will have 90 days to decide the
accreditor's fate. An appeal by the accreditor and lawsuits
could follow.
Most law schools in California are accredited by the ABA which
is recognized as an approved accrediting body for Title 38
purposes. This bill is not about those schools, however, it is
worthy of note that Inside Higher Ed also reported:
Most notably, the panel on Wednesday rebuked the American Bar
Association, in part for its lack of attention to student
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achievement.
The ABA accredits law schools, some of them freestanding
institutions. NACIQI, after three contentious votes,
recommended that the department suspend the association's
ability to accredit new members for a year. The panel said the
ABA had failed to implement its student achievement standards
and probationary sanctions, while also falling short on its
audit process and analysis of graduates' debt levels.
The non-American Bar Association accredited law schools impacted
by this bill are accredited instead by the Committee of Bar
Examiners which is not recognized as an approved accrediting
body for Title 38 purposes.
As discussed above, there is a great deal of attention at both
the state and federal level focused on the efficacy and
reliability of accreditation, and the practices of the
for-profit education industry. This bill is an attempt to strike
a reasonable balance between an absolute requirement that all
Title 38 eligible California law schools be accredited, the
accrediting practices of the CBE and the degree to which they
are equivalent to those of the ABA, the burden on schools of
seeking ABA accreditation, the risk to students in terms of
academic progress, potential loss of GI bill benefits, and other
considerations. The current language of the bill does not
require ABA accreditation, but does mandate enhanced reporting
and disclosure of performance metrics to the public as well as
enhanced regulatory oversight by CSAAVE.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
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Support
Alton & Allen, Inc.
American G.I. Forum of California
AMVETS-Department of California
Association of California Accredited Law Schools
California Association of County Veterans Service Officers
California State University, Monterey Bay
Cal Northern School of Law
City of Seaside, California - Office of the Mayor
Hartnell Community College District
Law Office of Michael Sampson
Lincoln Law School of Sacramento
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Monterey College of Law
Monterey County Business Council
Panetta Institute for Public Policy
Trinity Law School
Veterans Tranisition Center of Monterey County
VFW-Department of California
13 Individuals
Opposition
None on File.
Analysis Prepared by:John Spangler / V.A. / (916)
319-3550
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