New law requires CSU to tell students cost of off-campus housing

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

California’s public universities have failed to give students and their families accurate information on the cost of off-campus housing, prompting Gov. Jerry Brown to sign a bill Monday to ensure that the universities post online the true cost of attending a campus.

Assemblyman Freddie Rodriguez, D-Pomona (Los Angeles County) authored AB990, saying the University of California and California State University systems are using estimates that don’t reflect current market rates, leaving students and families without key information when calculating how much it will cost to attend a university.

AB990 requires each campus in the CSU and requests each campus in the UC to post on their websites the market cost of a one-bedroom apartment near each campus using estimates done on an annual basis. Most campuses already post off-campus costs on their websites, but each calculate it differently, with CSU relying on a survey from 2006 that is adjusted for inflation while UC uses a survey of UC students to estimate housing costs every three years.

The struggles of the higher education racket.