BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 330
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 330 (Chau)
As Amended January 23, 2014
Majority vote
HIGHER EDUCATION 9-2 APPROPRIATIONS 12-3
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|Ayes:|Williams, Bloom, Fong, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bocanegra, |
| |Fox, | |Bradford, |
| |Jones-Sawyer, Levine, | |Ian Calderon, Campos, |
| |Dickinson, Quirk-Silva, | |Eggman, Gomez, Holden, |
| |Weber | |Pan, Quirk, |
| | | |Ridley-Thomas, Weber |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Chávez, Wilk |Nays:|Bigelow, Allen, Wagner |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires postsecondary educational institutions to
provide their average student debt per graduate to the
California Student Aid Commission (CSAC) as a condition of
eligibility for the Cal Grant Program, requires CSAC to provide
this information on its Web site in a searchable database, and
requires a for-profit institution to include this information in
its School Performance Fact Sheet. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires postsecondary educational institutions that
participate in the Cal Grant Program to provide average
student loan debt information concerning graduates, as
defined, to CSAC. Authorizes the University of California and
the California State University to comply with this
requirement by including student loan debt information, as
defined, in their annual financial aid reports and providing a
copy of the report to CSAC. Provides an exemption for
California Community Colleges (CCC) from this requirement.
2)Requires CSAC to make all of the following information from
Cal Grant participating institutions available in the
searchable database on the CSAC Internet Web site: License
examination passage rates; Latest three-year cohort default
rate; Percentage of undergraduate student borrowers; and,
Average student loan debt information concerning graduates.
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3)Requires a for-profit institution that must provide its
students with a School Performance Fact Sheet (SPFS) pursuant
to the Private Postsecondary Education Act to include
information regarding the average student debt of its
graduates.
4)Requires the information regarding average student loan debt
to be calculated and reported as specified.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the Cal Grant Program under the administration of
CSAC, and establishes eligibility requirements for awards
under the program for participating students attending
qualifying institutions. As a condition for participation in
the program, existing law requires each Cal Grant
participating institution to annually report specified
information to CSAC, which CSAC is required to provide on its
Internet Web site in a searchable database. (Education Code
(EC) Section 69433.2)
2)Provides, among other things, for student protections and
regulatory oversight of private postsecondary schools in the
state pursuant to the California Private Postsecondary
Education Act of 2009. The Act is enforced by the Bureau for
Private Postsecondary Education (Bureau) within the Department
of Consumer Affairs, exempts specified institutions from all,
or a portion of, its provisions, and requires an institution
to provide a prospective student prior to enrollment with a
SPFS, which is required to contain specified information
relating to the educational program. (EC Section 94800, et
seq.)
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, minor and absorbable costs to the UC, CSU, Bureau and
CSAC.
COMMENTS : Average student debt data . According to data from
The Institute on College Access and Success's (TICAS) Project on
Student Debt, 52% of students who graduated from reporting
public and private non-profit four-year universities in
California in 2012 took out student loans (ranking 42nd in the
nation) with an average debt of $20,269 (ranking 48th in the
nation). According to TICAS, average student debt data is
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incomplete because most for-profit institutions and some
nonprofit colleges do not report their student debt data.
Limited institutional information regarding median borrowing
through federal financial aid programs can be found on the U.S.
Department of Education's Web site. However, the USDE figures
do not take into account whether the student graduated;
sometimes resulting a misleading picture of affordability at
colleges with high drop-out rates. This bill would require
institutions to report average loan debt of graduates in
certificate, associate degree, and baccalaureate degree
programs. Further, this bill would require institutions to
include all known loan debt associated with the student's cost
of attendance, not just borrowing in federal loan programs.
Arguments in support . The California Federation of Teachers
argues that it is valuable to provide prospective students and
their families with information and tools to gauge college
affordability and that this bill will facilitate the ability of
California families to make informed financial and educational
decisions. The California State Student Association notes that,
while CSU is one of the most cost-effective public universities
in the country, it is important that students be able to easily
compare college tuition and have a better understanding of the
true cost of college before they start.
Arguments in opposition . American Career College/West Coast
University argues that the regulations implementing AB 2296
(Block), Chapter 585, Statutes of 2012, requiring additional
SPFS disclosures, are only now being drafted and that this bill
will have the effect of piling on new requirements while
institutions are in the midst of understanding how AB 2296 will
be implemented. The University of Phoenix (UOPX) has requested
amendments to this bill to conform the disclosure requirements
to those required under federal law. Specifically, UOPX notes
that the information mandated in this bill differs from existing
mandates pursuant to the federal "Gainful Employment" rules and
the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS),
resulting in institutions being required to provide one data set
to comply with GE, a different data set to comply with IPEDS and
a different data set to comply with AB 330. These differing
requirements create confusion for students and duplicative and
costly data gathering requirements for institutions.
AB 330
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Analysis Prepared by : Laura Metune / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960
FN: 0002984