Ms. Maxson explained that the purpose of the amendments to the Skills Development Fund rules is to expedite service to areas with higher than average unemployment. One comment was received and has been noted in the adoption preamble. Commissioner O'Mahoney made a motion to adopt the amendments to the Skills Development Fund rules. Commissioner Lehman seconded the motion and it was unanimously passed. Discussion, Consideration and Possible Action Regarding Adoption of CY 99 Rate of Interest Paid by Proprietary Schools for Late Refunds of Student Funds Michael DeLong, Program Coordinator of Proprietary Schools, stated that the purpose of the 250 percent penalty rate is to pay the student loans of the individual students having late refunds.
Any overage goes into the tuition protection fund.
Mr. DeLong pointed out that the penalty rate has no effect on schools that are compliant with refund policy. Commissioner Lehman made a motion to accept staff recommendation to set the interest rate for repaying student loans. Commissioner O'Mahoney seconded the motion and it was unanimously passed. Chairman Rath asked what effect the comptroller's sweep had on the tuition protection fund itself. Chairman Rath said that during her visit to Baltimore last week, she was gratified and encouraged to realize how far ahead Texas is in implementation of welfare reform, while at the same time realizing that there is a significant amount of work to be done in implementing the new Workforce Investment Act.