BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                  AB 2534
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   April 25, 2012

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                    AB 2534 (Block) - As Amended:  March 29, 2012 

          Policy Committee:                              Higher 
          EducationVote:9-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program: 
          Yes    Reimbursable:               No

           SUMMARY  

          This bill extends the sunset date on the California Private 
          Postsecondary Act by one year, to January 1, 2016.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Requires funding the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education 
          for one additional year. For 2012-13, the governor's budget 
          proposes special fund expenditures of $8.3 million, and 57 
          positions, to operate the bureau. �Private Postsecondary 
          Education Administration Fund]

           COMMENTS  

           1)Background  . California has a long and arduous history of 
            attempted oversight of the private postsecondary education 
            sector. On January 1, 2007, the former law authorizing the 
            regulation of the private postsecondary education sector was 
            allowed to sunset.  Between 2007 and 2009, several attempts to 
            establish a new regulatory structure failed. In 2009, AB 48 
            (Portantino)/ Chapter 310 established a new Bureau with the 
            Department of Consumer Affairs to enforce the provisions of 
            the new Act, which are scheduled to sunset on January 1, 2015.

           2)Purpose  . A joint hearing in February of the Assembly Committee 
            on Higher Education and the Senate Committee on Business, 
            Professions, and Economic Development focused on private 
            postsecondary oversight. According to the author, the results 
            of that hearing made clear that the bureau is both effective 
            and important, but has been hindered by a slower than expected 
            funding stream and staff hiring. (The bureau is only expected 








                                                                  AB 2534
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            to become fully-staffed in the current fiscal year.) This bill 
            extends the bureau's sunset by one year so that it may become 
            fully operational.

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