For-profit colleges sue Obama admin for new rules
The Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, a group that represents for-profit colleges, sued the U.S. Department of Education and Secretary Arne Duncan on behalf of for-profit colleges. For-profit colleges disagree with the rules released in late October that penalize career training programs for charging high tuition that saddles students with massive debt while offering low-paying job prospects.
For-profit schools filed a lawsuit and asked a judge to reject the new regulation, claiming the Department of Education does not have the right to set debt-to-earning standards. The Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities called the rule “unlawful, arbitrary, and irrational” and feels it will “needlessly harm millions of students who attend private sector colleges and universities.” They strong believe that the job a student lands and their earnings after graduation “depend heavily on factors beyond the schools control.”
The Education Department announced its “gainful employment” rules, which base a program’s ability to receive federal loans on whether the estimated annual loan payment of a typical graduate doesn’t exceed 8% of total earnings or 20% of the student’s discretionary income.
For-profit colleges will be allotted time to make changes, but if they fail to meet the standards, they will become ineligible for federal student aid, which makes up nearly 90% of the revenue at for-profit schools. The DOE estimated about 1,400 programs would not meet the standards.
For-profit schools have been on the receiving end of the Obama administration’s attempts to harness students escalating debt levels for some time.
I agree that for-profit schools should be under some scrutiny to help solve the rising college debt in our country. Students shouldn’t have so much debt and such low paying jobs that they are unable to pay back their college loans.
For-profit schools should not get away with charging such high tuitions to unsuspecting students. It’s a shame that schools do this and innocent people think they will be able to pay their loans back — but then either can’t find a job or the one they get it so low paying, they can’t scratch the surface of their debt. I hope that
While I don’t know how I feel about the new rules, I do know that high tuition and few job prospects. That doesn’t add up. However, that can happen to students no matter what school they attend. I know plenty of people who attended public colleges who struggled finding jobs for years after graduation, let alone high paying ones.
Debt-to-earning standards seem like a really good idea in this situation. While they may not be “fair,” they are important to help prevent more people from being saddled with massive debt. These individuals are attending college with hopes and dreams to make more out of their lives– but instead, many end up worse than where they began (financially).