Applause for her veteran
Schools seen as taking advantage of military benefits.
Jamie Dorsey, 17, applauds her father, Ron Dorsey, a Marine veteran of the Vietnam War, at the Veterans Day ceremony Wednesday at the Capitol in Austin. Thousands lined Congress Avenue to show their appreciation for veterans. The parade was followed by a ceremony at the Capitol with a speech by Gov. Greg Abbott. In Washington, the president urged improved health care for veterans.
— The White House urged Congress on Veterans Day to pass a series of bills that would protect U.S. troops from colleges taking advantage of their military benefits without delivering a quality education.
Men and women who serve in the military receive $57 billion in federal education funding that has become a stable source of revenue for many schools. Because the money is exempt from a key federal rule that governs the way for-profit colleges are funded, critics say those schools aggressively recruit members of the military and too often fail to prepare them for the workforce.
White House officials are pressing lawmakers to take up legislation introduced by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., to reinstate a rule that banned for-profit colleges from getting more than 85 percent of their operating revenue from any federal student loans and grants.
“This ramps up the accountability for schools that are marketing to veterans and other students who come with federal dollars, and to make sure that we are providing a high-quality education for the veterans who have served us so well,” said Cecilia Muñoz, the White House’s domestic policy director.
Congress first capped the amount of taxpayer dollars for-profit colleges could receive at 85 percent in 1992, to crack down on fly-by-night schools making money from student aid programs. The government figured a for-profit school with quality programs should have no trouble deriving at least 15 percent of its revenue from students willing to put up their own money. The for-profit industry fought the rule, which was relaxed six years later as the cap was raised to 90 percent, and military education benefits were exempted.
“This high threshold allows far too much federal money to funnel to an industry that often provides a greater return on taxpayer investment to its administrators and investors than it does to its students,” Durbin said. “We can’t let this invitation to exploit our veterans continue.”
Several veterans groups have championed the changes, including Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the largest group representing post-9 /11 veterans.
Forcing colleges to collect at least 15 percent of their revenue from non-federal sources would be “huge,” said Phil Carter, who oversees veterans issues at the Center for a New American Security, a foreign policy think tank. “It will do a lot to reduce the financial incentives for for-profit schools to target veterans,” Carter said.
Supporters of for-profit colleges argue that lowering the funding threshold is a punitive move that could ultimately limit higher education options for veterans.