WILSON EXTENDS DEADLINE FOR TRADE-SCHOOL AGENCY.

Byline: Paul Hefner Daily News Sacramento Bureau

Gov. Pete Wilson signed legislation Monday to officially extend the life of an obscure state agency that regulates private trade schools, though a political stalemate long ago left the place an empty shell.

The law allows the Council for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education, which had been set to close today, to stay open through July 18, giving lawmakers more time to strike a deal on the oversight of private schools.

Though few people even have heard of the council, which set up shop in 1991, it has been hailed by consumer groups for helping rid the state of diploma mills and fly-by-night operators.

Assemblyman Roderick Wright, D-Los Angeles, said that allowing the council to close would leave students vulnerable to being ripped off, just as thousands of people are expected to seek job training as part of the state's welfare reform effort.

Before the law establishing the council was enacted, one school offered a 300-hour course for security guards - a job for which the state requires only 8 hours of training, he said.

``Students had no protections, no rights . . . they were simply ripped off,'' said Wright, who carried the bill to keep the council in operation.

But the council became the focus of months of bickering among politicians, including a full-court press by some Republicans to let the ``sunset'' date on the agency expire, killing it outright.

Critics say the council's staff weighed down schools with burdensome regulations and fees.

Assemblyman Tom McClintock, R-Granada Hills, tried to convince fellow lawmakers to deny the council even a temporary extension. He called the council ``a rogue elephant of a bureaucracy.''

During the battle between supporters and critics, most of the state employees who had jobs at the council - which oversaw everything from cooking schools to courses for would-be blacksmiths - voted with their feet.

Only 17 of the council's 71 employees were still on the job last week, said Kenneth Miller, the council's executive director.

``They were just being used as pawns, so they left,'' said Miller, who oversees more darkened offices and empty gray cubicles than workers. ``For people in civil service, job security is about No. 1 on the list.''

The council has broad powers to punish schools with poor graduation or job placement rates. It also operates a fund that pays refunds to students whose school goes out of business before their courses end.

But what's left of the council staff can't process applications for licenses or take complaints from students, Miller said.

``Basically, we're just answering the phones now and packing up,'' he said.

With a temporary extension in place, representatives for Wright and other lawmakers are meeting with trade school officials to try to reach a compromise on permanent legislation to replace the council.

Wilson favors transferring responsibility for the schools to the Department of Consumer Affairs, said Steve Tatum, a spokesman for the governor.

But consumer activists fear that important protections for students will be lost in the shuffle.