Perata stymied on bill regulating trade schools

California Senate Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) will have to wait a few days to try again on a bill that would provide some regulation of state trade schools.

A voluntary accountability requirement for such schools expires at midnight Monday, leaving about 400,000 students unprotected, according to a coalition of consumer groups backing Perata's bill, SB 823.

The bill would require postsecondary schools, as they're known, to publish a fact sheet on their Web sites with such information as how many students complete the school's programs, and how many of them subsequently find jobs in their fields of training.

SB 823 was termed an urgency measure because of the end of the voluntary requirements, and so needed a two-thirds vote to pass in the state Assembly.

The bill fell short with only 42 votes instead of the 54 needed, but will be reconsidered Thursday, according to a press release from State Sen. Perata's office.

At a press conference before the vote, students from schools in San Jose and Palm Springs said they'd taken out thousands in loans to attend vocational programs at postsecondary schools, but received poor instruction and have been unable to find jobs since.

"They said so many lies," said Doris Sifuentes of Palm Springs, who paid about $12,000 to attend classes toward becoming a medical administrative specialist in insurance at Maric College in Palm Springs.

"We had a teacher there who was training with us. All the books were old," she said.

In SB 823, the cost of creating such accountability reports would be paid through student fees at the schools.

Students who felt a school's promises didn't match reality would be able to file a claim through the state for a refund of their tuition, under the bill.

Elena Ackel, a public interest attorney from Los Angeles, said at the press conference that accredited postsecondary schools are of particular concern because they get federal financial aid money for boosting enrollment.

"The trade schools have the lobbyists," she said, explaining why previous mandatory requirements for such schools expired in 2007. "These schools don't want to be regulated."