Protecting Students From Predatory Higher Education Practices Amid COVID-19
The pandemic has plunged millions of Americans into financial uncertainty and hardship. Sadly, bad actors prey on the desperation that comes with unemployment and economic disruption. And some of these bad actors are shady for-profit colleges.
As a general rule, enrollments in for-profit colleges increase during an economic downturn, and this is particularly true during the pandemic. As American workers face layoffs, business closures, and unemployment, they’re looking for affordable ways to further their education and training so that they can continue to provide for their families.
But while for-profit higher education institutions may initially appear affordable and accessible, many have troubling track records, which include poor graduation rates, false promises about potential job prospects, and a history of preying on service members and veterans.
For-profit institutions disproportionately saddle many students with crippling debt. In fact, even though for-profit colleges enroll just 9 percent of all post-secondary students, they account for 34 percent of all federal student loan defaults. Meanwhile, for-profit institutions rake in billions of taxpayer dollars through legal loopholes.
In 2019, I introduced the PROTECT Students Act with Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois. This comprehensive legislation, cosponsored by 26 of our colleagues, would help protect students and taxpayers from these institutions’ predatory actions.
With enrollments increasing now, it’s more important than ever that we give students these additional protections.
That’s why I’m working to amend the National Defense Authorization Act to include several provisions from the PROTECT Students Act, one of which reestablishes students’ ability to anonymously report potential cases of fraud and abuse in federal financial aid programs.
I’m also working with colleagues to stop for-profit colleges from using taxpayer dollars for marketing, advertising, or recruiting and to close the loophole that allows colleges to count G.I. Benefits as non-federal dollars towards the required 10 percent of their revenues that must be from a non-federal source. This loophole has led some predatory for-profit schools to deliberately and aggressively recruit veterans and even provide false information to them regarding their programs, including the expected level of student debt that enrollees will incur and what kind of jobs would be available to the student once they graduate.
The provisions that we are pushing for are designed to prevent predatory for-profit institutions from exploiting students and to hold these institutions accountable for the claims they make. Right now, these efforts are critical — especially because of the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to gut student protections. Just this week, two harmful changes implemented by this administration went into effect — one of which will weaken defrauded students’ loan forgiveness options and the other will stop for-profit institutions from being held accountable when they fail to prepare students for good-paying jobs.
Last year, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos eliminated $11 billion in relief for students who were deceived by these institutions. And just since this pandemic began, she has failed to help students access the financial aid that they are eligible for as their financial situations radically shift due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the actions taken by Secretary DeVos are unacceptable, they’re not surprising.
Secretary DeVos has a history of prioritizing for-profit institutions during her tenure. From staffing her department with former for-profit college administrators to disbanding the Department’s fraud unit, it is clear that Secretary DeVos puts the interests of for-profit institutions ahead of students.
All hard-working students deserve the opportunity to receive a quality education. In this 21st century economy, education is at the center of Americans’ — and therefore our nation’s — continued success.
Even before our country found itself in crisis, this administration had already failed students by refusing to put further checks on the practices of bad actors in the for-profit college industry. Now — as many Americans are particularly vulnerable — we must act to protect students.
