What happened to California CFI's registering as colleges?

[RobertGary1]

Does anyone know what became of the rule introduced in California (2010'ish) that required all CFI's  to register with the state as a college and pay a $1500 application fee? I recall pilot groups were upset about it at the time and the rule was put on hold for a specified period of time. Does anyone know what become of this?

 

-Robert

[bonal]

My CFI has made no mention of it and I know he would retire before paying such a ridiculous charge so I don't think its in effect. But I'm wrong more often than right so the next post you will read will explain it better

[StinkBug]

It would be especially ridiculous seeing as the state doesn't consider flight lessons as education and qualify you for financial aid. Would be pretty messed up if the CFI had to register as a college, but the student wasn't given the benefits of attending a college.

[RobertGary1]

Some info. http://www.pilotquest.com/b/2010/06/my-response-on-california-ab48.html

[RobertGary1]

The amusing thing is that this was in response to a large flight school that took a bunch of student money and went out of business. However, the rule doesn't seem to do anything to fix that, its overly broad to cover CFI's who don't take money up front, and recent events in California have shown that even colleges with state certification etc go out of business leaving students without a school.

So it feels like regulation for regulation sake. If the goal was to prevent these high profile flight school incidents the rule could have been as simple as limiting how much a student can pay up front or require future funds to be escrowed instead of held by the school. The unique things about flight instruction is that its standardized by the FAA. So if I start a student on his private and then I leave town he can go to another CFI without a major interruption. Inconvenience, yes, but not at all prohibitive.

 

-Robert

[ryoder]

If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.