Inside Higher Ed
California moves toward creating the strictest regulatory landscape for for-profit colleges in the U.S., but proposed legislation has already been weakened.
By Lindsay McKenzie
A package of seven interrelated bills proposing tighter regulation of for-profit and private colleges in California moved closer to becoming law this week – but not fully intact.
One of the bills, a proposal to create the nation’s first state-level gainful-employment rule, was watered down to require only the collection and disclosure of data around employment outcomes of graduates at for-profit colleges.
Another bill, which proposed to toughen the 90-10 rule in California – a regulation that allows for-profit institutions to claim up to 90 percent of their revenue from federal financial aid – was delayed. It is possible the bill will be considered again by the committee next year.
Robert Shireman, director of higher education excellence at the Century Foundation and a former Education Department official during the Obama administration, helped to draft the language of the seven bills. In an emailed statement, he expressed disappointment that the California Senate committees failed to adopt these “critical protections for students.”
“At a time when veterans are at significant risk of being ripped off by for-profit colleges, and just days after [Education] Secretary [Betsy] DeVos shamefully repealed the federal gainful-employment rule, these two bills in California were desperately needed to fill the void that the Trump administration is currently widening,” he said.
“Still, taken together the five bills advanced out of committee represent a positive step forward for California students and, if enacted, would be the strongest for-profit college regulations that any state has passed,” said Shireman. “It is yet another sign of the growing recognition across the country that for-profit colleges, by design, are inherently different and pose greater risks to consumers and taxpayers.”….
