Assemblyman Frazier Wants Safeguard for Veteran Students at For-Profit Colleges

Sacramento, CA – Assemblymember Jim Frazier (D – Oakley) has introduced legislation to help ensure veteran student success at for-profit colleges.

Assembly Bill 2099 will require for-profit colleges to meet a minimum graduation rate of 30 percent and default rate of less than 15.5 percent before they can admit veteran students who receive GI Bill financial aid. This bill establishes the same graduation rate and default rate that the Legislature recently enacted as a requirement for these for-profit colleges to receive Cal Grant dollars.

“Every year the GI Bill helps thousands of veterans subsidize their college education and has been credited with the transformation of the middle class after World War II,” said Assemblymember Frazier. “While for-profit colleges can be a good choice for many nontraditional students, a number of companies have capitalized on the financial assistance that veterans receive.”

In 2012, a report released by the United State Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee examined the taxpayer investment of billions of dollars into companies that operate for-profit colleges. The report found that these institutions can play an essential role in providing access to higher education, but have failed to make the necessary investment in services to help students succeed in school, such as tutors, counselors, academic advisors, and job placement staff. The report also revealed that the observed for-profit colleges employed nearly three recruiters for each support service employee and in some cases spent less on instructional cost than they spent on marketing and recruiting or made in profit.

Most for-profit colleges set tuition above available financial aid and generally cost significantly more than comparable community colleges and state universities causing nearly 96 percent of students starting at a for-profit college to take on student loans. From the companies examined, 54 percent of students from 2008 to 2010 left the school, often times with high debt and without a certificate or a degree.

“Many veteran students have left these colleges with outrageous debt and few marketable skills to obtain a job that pays a living wage. We have the opportunity to set reasonable standards that will produce a well-educated and well trained veteran workforce,” said Assemblymember Frazier. “Our veterans deserve to be treated with respect and provided a high quality education from the college they attend.”

To contact Assemblymember Jim Frazier please visit his website at http://www.asmdc.org/members/a11/ or call his District Offices at 707-399-3011 or 925-778-5790.

Here is a look at AB2099 Per the California State Assembly Website

AB 2099, as introduced, Frazier. Postsecondary education: Title 38 awards.

Title 38 of the United States Code provides educational awards for eligible active duty members and veterans of the Armed Forces of the United States. Existing law requires an institution headquartered or operating in California desiring to enroll students eligible for federal Title 38 awards in accredited courses to make application for approval of these courses to the California State Approving Agency for Veterans Education, commonly known as CSAAVE, and authorizes CSAAVE to approve the application of the school when the school and its accredited courses satisfy the specified criteria and any additional reasonable criteria established by CSAAVE.

Unless an exception applies, this bill would deem an institution ineligible for initial and renewal Title 38 awards if the institution has a 3-year cohort default rate equal to or greater than 15.5% or a graduation rate of 30% or less for students taking 150% or less of the expected time to complete degree requirements, or does not satisfy the other criteria for qualification for Title 38 awards in the bill.

The bill would require CSAAVE to certify by October 1 of each year an institution’s latest 3-year cohort default rate and graduation rate as most recently reported by the United States Department of Education, to notify initial Title 38 recipients seeking to attend, or attending, an institution that is ineligible for initial and renewal Title 38 awards that the institution is ineligible for Title 38 awards for the academic year, and to provide initial and renewal Title 38 recipients at an ineligible institution with a complete list of all California postsecondary institutions at which the student would be eligible to receive a Title 38 award.

he people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Chapter 12.5 (commencing with Section 67100) is added to Part 40 of Division 5 of Title 3 of the Education Code, to read:

CHAPTER  12.5. Title 38 Awards

67100.

The Legislature finds and declares the following:

(a) Section 21.4253 of the Code of Federal Regulations requires a postsecondary institution headquartered or operating in California desiring to enroll veterans or persons eligible for Title 38 awards in accredited courses to make application for approval of these courses to the California State Approving Agency for Veterans Education, commonly known as CSAAVE, as the state approving agency legally designated pursuant to Section 3671 of Subchapter I of Chapter 36 of Title 38 of the United States Code.

(b) Section 21.4253 authorizes CSAAVE to approve the application of the school when the school and its accredited courses satisfy the criteria provided in Section 21.4253 and additional reasonable criteria established by CSAAVE.

(c) It is reasonable pursuant to Section 21.4253 for CSAAVE to require an institution to maintain a three-year cohort default rate and graduation rate that satisfies the three-year cohort default rate and graduation rate requirements of the Cal Grant Program for the institution to be eligible for initial and renewal Title 38 awards.

67101.

The Title 38 Funding Program is hereby established, under the administration of the California State Approving Agency for Veterans Education.

67102.

As used in this chapter, the following terms have the following meanings:

(a) An “academic year” is July 1 to June 30, inclusive. The starting date of a session shall determine the academic year in which it is included.

(b) “CSAAVE” is the California State Approving Agency for Veterans Education.

(c) (1) “Qualifying institution” means an institution that complies with paragraphs (2) and (3) and is any of the following:

(A) A California private or independent postsecondary educational institution that participates in the Pell Grant Program and in at least two of the following federal campus-based student aid programs:

(i) Federal Work-Study.

(ii) Perkins Loan Program.

(iii) Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant Program.

(B) A nonprofit institution headquartered and operating in California that certifies to CSAAVE that 10 percent of the institution’s operating budget, as demonstrated in an audited financial statement, is expended for purposes of institutionally funded student financial aid in the form of grants, that demonstrates to the CSAAVE that it has the administrative capacity to administer the funds, that is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, and that meets any other state-required criteria adopted by regulation by the CSAAVE in consultation with the Department of Finance. A regionally accredited institution that was deemed qualified by the CSAAVE to participate in the Cal Grant Program for the 2013–14 academic year shall retain its eligibility as long as it maintains its existing accreditation status.

(C) A California public postsecondary educational institution.

(2) (A) The institution shall provide information 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 Internet Web site of a California licensing or regulatory agency. For purposes of this paragraph, “provide” may exclusively include placement of an Internet Web site address labeled as an access point for the data on the passage rates of recent program graduates on the Internet Web site where enrollment information is also located, on an Internet Web site that provides centralized admissions information for postsecondary educational systems with multiple campuses, or on applications for enrollment or other program information distributed to prospective students.

(B) The institution shall be responsible for certifying to the CSAAVE compliance with the requirements of subparagraph (A).

(3) (A) The CSAAVE shall certify by October 1 of each year the institution’s latest three-year cohort default rate and graduation rate as most recently reported by the United States Department of Education.

(B) For purposes of the 2015–16 academic year, and every academic year thereafter, an otherwise qualifying institution with a three-year cohort default rate that is equal to or greater than 15.5 percent, as certified by the CSAAVE shall be deemed ineligible by CSAAVE for initial and renewal of Title 38 awards at the institution.

(C) (i) An otherwise qualifying institution that becomes ineligible under this paragraph for initial and renewal of Title 38 awards shall regain its eligibility for the academic year for which it satisfies the requirements established in subparagraph (B) or (E), as applicable.

(ii) If the United States Department of Education corrects or revises an institution’s three-year cohort default rate or graduation rate that originally failed to satisfy the requirements established in subparagraph (B) or (E), as applicable, and the correction or revision results in the institution’s three-year cohort default rate or graduation rate satisfying those requirements, that institution shall immediately regain its eligibility for the academic year to which the corrected or revised three-year cohort default rate or graduation rate would have been applied.

(D) An otherwise qualifying institution for which no three-year cohort default rate or graduation rate has been reported by the United States Department of Education shall be provisionally eligible to participate in the Title 38 Funding Program until a three-year cohort default rate or graduation rate has been reported for the institution by the United States Department of Education.

(E) For purposes of the 2015–16 academic year, and every academic year thereafter, an otherwise qualifying institution with a graduation rate of 30 percent or less for students taking 150 percent or less of the expected time to complete degree requirements, as reported by the United States Department of Education and as certified by the CSAAVE pursuant to subparagraph (A), shall be deemed by CSAAVE to be ineligible for initial and renewal of Title 38 awards at the institution, except as provided for in subparagraph (G).

(F) Notwithstanding any other law, the requirements of this paragraph shall not apply to institutions with 40 percent or less of undergraduate students borrowing federal student loans, using information reported to the United States Department of Education for the academic year two years before the year in which the CSAAVE is certifying the three-year cohort default rate or graduation rate pursuant to subparagraph (A).

(G) Notwithstanding subparagraph (E), an otherwise qualifying institution with a three-year cohort default rate that is less than 10 percent and a graduation rate above 20 percent for students taking 150 percent or less of the expected time to complete degree requirements, as certified by the CSAAVE pursuant to subparagraph (A), shall remain eligible for initial and renewal Title 38 awards at the institution through the 2018–19 academic year.

(H) The CSAAVE shall do all of the following:

(i) Notify initial Title 38 recipients seeking to attend, or attending, an institution that is ineligible for initial and renewal Title 38 awards under subparagraph (B) or (E) that the institution is ineligible for initial Title 38 awards for the academic year for which the student received an initial Title 38 award.

(ii) Provide initial and renewal Title 38 recipients seeking to attend, or attending, an institution that is ineligible for initial and renewal Title 38 awards at the institution under subparagraph (B) or (E) with a complete list of all California postsecondary educational institutions at which the student would be eligible to receive a Title 38 award.

Source
http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB2099&search_keywords=