AB 1611: Private postsecondary education.

Existing law, the California Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009, provides, among other things, for student protections and regulatory oversight of private postsecondary institutions in the state. The act is enforced by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education within the Department of Consumer Affairs. The act exempts certain institutions from its provisions.

This bill would require each institution that is subject to the acts provisions to submit to the bureau, for each of its debt-dependent programs, as defined, specified information regarding each person in a graduating cohort, as defined, of an academic year commencing with the graduating cohort for the 201011 academic year. The bill would require the bureau to obtain federal student loan debt and median and average earnings for each person of the graduating cohorts, as specified, determine the total amount of student loan debt incurred by these persons, and make available to the public certain data, including student loan debt and earnings data, for each debt-dependent program offered by the institution. The bill would authorize the bureau to, among other things, require the institution to provide warnings to current and prospective students regarding its programs with high debt burdens relative to earnings and deny approval to operate for a new program that is substantially similar to a program that has exhibited high debt burdens, as determined by the bureau. The bill would provide that its provisions shall be implemented only to the extent that implementation is in compliance with state and federal privacy laws. The bill would make its provisions operative only if specified federal regulations are suspended or repealed.