DeVos proposes another rollback on for-profit college rules
The Trump administration plans to roll back another major Obama-era rule that was created to police the for-profit college industry, according to a proposal issued by the Education Department on Friday.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said the gainful employment regulation should be scrapped entirely, arguing that it wasn’t backed up by research and created burdensome reporting requirements for schools. The rule sought to punish for-profit college programs that left graduates with heavy debt compared to their incomes
DeVos’ proposal represents the Education Department’s second planned rollback of a major Obama-era rule in a matter of weeks.
On July 25, DeVos proposed changes to the socalled borrower defense rule to toughen the process by which defrauded students can get their loans erased, saying it had become too easy for students to skip out on their debt.
The rules were part of the Obama administration’s crackdown on for-profit colleges, which was fueled by widespread complaints of fraud against chains including Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute. Both chains collapsed under pressure from Obama officials.
Under the 2014 gainful employment rule, college programs could be cut off from federal funding if the average debt ratio of their graduates stayed above a certain limit for two out of three straight years.
The rule also required schools to publicize debt and earnings data for their programs, which aimed to help students avoid programs with poor outcomes.
But DeVos said that, instead of punishing schools, her department plans to give more information to students by publishing earnings data for programs at all colleges and universities, not just those in the for-profit industry.
“Students deserve useful and relevant data when making important decisions about their education post-high school,” she said. “That’s why instead of targeting schools simply by their tax status, this administration is working to ensure students have transparent, meaningful information about all colleges and all programs.”