Academia Mania

Sunday, February 13, 2005 | 0

by Thomas H. Gilmore, MS

As many of you know, the Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education (a.k.a. the BPPVE) has been in a state of flux for quite a while. They have had several changes in leadership over the past few years, lost 80% of their staff the last time they sunsetted, just recently had their latest sunset date extended, and have been proposed by the Governor's CPR (California Performance Review) committee to be moved from the Department of Consumer Affairs to reporting directly to the Governor's office along with other higher education institutions such as community colleges, California State University, etc.

Most recently, the BPPVE has been without an official leader. This has led to uncertainty among BPPVE staff and California vocational schools about a variety of things. As with many other parts of our industry, we have laws, regulations, and day-to-day practices that are supposed to support those laws and regulations. The day-to-day practices are open to interpretation by BPPVE staff and thus can lead to inconsistent application of laws and regulations. Sad to say, this is happening all too frequently and it is very difficult to run a school when the rules keep changing.

One area of regulatory interpretation confusion is, "What exactly is a sole proprietorship? Can a husband and wife be a sole proprietor?" This is important to smaller schools that are run by the owner(s) because according to BPPVE regulations, a sole proprietor may act as a school director even though he or she does not have three years experience in an administrative position in a public or approved Private postsecondary school.

Recently, some BPPVE staff have ruled that a husband and wife are not a sole proprietorship of because of California's community property laws and, therefore, are not able to use the exclusion that sole proprietors have not to have a certificated director on board. In order to be in compliance of the BPPVE, a husband and wife school owner would therefore have to hire a certificated director. For many small schools this is a layer of administrative overhead that would prove financially ruinous. This is just one example of where the lack of leadership continuity in the BPPVE has led to an unsteady hand on the tiller resulting in laws and regulations not being applied fairly, consistently, and wisely.

Another example of inconsistent and questionable BPPVE application of regulatory power relates to small school exclusions for Article 7, the Maxine Waters Act. Small schools with less than 100 students and no grants and loans subject regulations pertaining to the one financial aid (such as Pell grants) do not need to pay fees associated with the Maxine Waters act. Some BPPVE staffers have concluded that grants and loans include vocational rehabilitation payments from insurance companies and WIA funds. This adds additional, necessary, onerous expenses for small schools in financially challenging uncertain times.

A long time complaint of schools has been the slowness of the BPPVE to grant approvals to schools for operating in the State of California. This is not going to change for the better soon. There's no doubt that the BPPVE staff are overworked and understaffed. It is truly not their fault that this is so, as the recent budgetary crisis and workers compensation debacle have consumed the attention of our legislators to the exclusion of the many issues involving the vocational school sector. To their credit, BPPVE staffers and staff have re-prioritized their work and are doing what they can to deal with a hefty backlog of work. Still, this is of little consolation to the school that has been waiting for months or longer for BPPVE and approval or re-approval.

So what can a school do when their business is on the line and the BPPVE seems to loom as an insurmountable obstacle to continued survival? I have no panaceas, just common sense suggestions.

1. Know the BPPVE regulations inside and out. If you don't have a copy of the regulations, call the Bureau and get one for yourself and spend at least one hour per week every week reading and re-reading the regulations. If you don't want to wait for a copy, the BPPVE has the regulations available on line at http://www.bppve.ca.gov.
2. Not only do you need to know and abide by the BPPVE regulations, so does your staff. The things that they say and do are critical to your compliance with these critical regulations. So meet with your staff collectively and individually to ensure they are not doing anything to put you and your school in harm's way. Better yet, send them to training in their specialties (admissions, placement, etc.). The past two years CARRP has provided workshops for schools at the CARRP Statewide Conference. Also, the California Association of Private Postsecondary Schools (CAPPS) has excellent resources, workshops, and experience to help you educate, illuminate, and motivate your staff (go to cappsonline.org to check it out).
3. When the BPPVE asks for something, do your best to provide it in a friendly, cheerful, immediate manner. You don't want to make their jobs harder than they are already or create more stress in your relationship with them. Once upon a time, I was dealing with a trivial situation in which I knew I was right. My boss pulled me aside and told me, "Be sure to pick which hill you want to die on. Sometimes it's not worth being right." He was right! It does you no good to be right on trivial matters at the expense of your relationship with the BPPVE staff. This does not mean you should be a doormat. Just be prudent and save your energies for the fights that really matter.
4. If a BPPVE staffer comes to your school for a site inspection, provide them every courtesy that you can. Do your best to give them comfortable surroundings to work in, make staff and resources available to them (copy machine, phone, etc.). Take time up front to show them how to sue the equipment and reassure them help is needed whenever possible. Realize that their job is to find where you are in and out of compliance. They will find something wrong. That is their job! Be gracious about it and do what you can to fix it immediately. Most of all don't get defensive (even if you know you are right). Even if you are at odds with the BPPVE staffer on a major issue, you will not get it solved by pointing out how wrong the staffer is. Let patience be your ally and investigate the issue as soon as you can. Then approach it tactfully yet assertively with the BPPVE.
5. If you think you are being treated unfairly, call the California Association for Private Postsecondary Schools (CAPPS). Even if you are not a member (though you should be) they can be of considerable assistance. Their phone number is (916) 440-5500 and they are excellent at helping schools with school/BPPVE issues.

So what is in the future for the BPPVE? It is very hard to tell. If they are moved to report to the Governor, that may bode well for our sector. It will expose us as an industry by placing us next to community colleges and universities. This is who we are and where we belong when you think about it. Are we not closer to colleges and universities than to the Bureau for Automotive Repair? I, for one, sure hope so. This move will make our actions, results, successes, and failures more transparent to our proponents and opponents. All things considered, I believe this would be a good move for the many good schools in our sector that work so hard to make a difference in people's lives and would be a bane to those not-so-good schools that don't.

Thomas Gilmore is the past president of CARRP, the California Association of Rehabilitation and Reemployment Professionals. CARRP has been KEEPING CALIFORNIA WORKING since 1975. Tom is also co-owner of vocational training schools and is active in legislative issues ensuring that schools maintain standards of excellence. Published with permission from CARRP.

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