Bill To Oversee For-Profit Colleges Passes

{Frankfort, Kentucky}...Under a bill that cleared the state legislature Thursday, for-profit colleges would be subject to stiffer oversight. The measure would create the 11-member Kentucky Commission on Proprietary Education made up of four representatives from for-profit colleges and four at-large members with backgrounds in education and business, plus the state's education secretary, education commissioner and the president of the Council on Postsecondary Education. The legislation gives the commission authority to hire staff to monitor for-profit colleges in Kentucky and to investigate complaints. Those colleges, under the bill, would have to publicly disclose a variety of information, including job placement rates. Attorney General Jack Conway has taken one for-profit college with several campuses in Kentucky to court, alleging the state's consumer protection laws were violated by deceptive claims about job placement successes.