- Biden is pushing off implementing the “gainful employment” rule in his regulatory agenda.
- The rule would prevent student-loan borrowers from taking on too much unaffordable debt post-grad.
- Biden has opposed advocates’ efforts to reinstate the rule that was repealed under Trump.
President Joe Biden’s to-do list for the upcoming year has a lot of things on it, and a rule preventing for-profit student debt from growing isn’t one of them.
In 2014, then-President Barack Obama established what was known as the “gainful employment” rule, which cut off federal aid for schools that offer career and certificate programs that left their students with a large of amount of student debt compared to their likely post-graduation earnings. The rule aimed to prevent students from borrowing an excessive amount that they wouldn’t be able to pay off based on their career prospects after graduating.
Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos repealed the rule in 2019, and despite advocates’ calls for Biden to reinstate it, the president’s latest regulatory agenda pushed it off to July 2024 at the earliest.
An Education Department spokesperson told Insider that the “administration is committed to preventing a future student debt crisis by holding colleges and universities accountable if they leave students with mountains of debt or without good jobs.”
“That vision included strengthening the standards for career training programs and require that programs leave graduates earning more than those who never attended college, a move that would ensure students get value for their tuition dollars,” the spokesperson said. “The Gainful Employment rule is a cornerstone of our ambitious regulatory agenda. We look forward to publishing a notice of proposed rulemaking in Spring 2023 to produce the best, most durable rule possible to protect students and borrowers.”
The administration typically releases a list of proposed regulatory actions for federal agencies twice a year. But putting together the priorities for the Education Department can be a yearslong process that involves negotiated rulemaking sessions, in which experts gather to discuss higher-education policies they would like to see the department implement.
The gainful employment rule is one of the topics under discussion, and despite student-loan-borrower advocates pushing for the rule to be reinstated, representatives of the for-profit education industry didn’t want that to happen quite so fast. For now, it looks like the latter won, and the administration is tapping the brakes.
Jason Altmire, the president and CEO of Career Education Colleges and Universities, which represents for-profit institutions, said in a statement that he is “pleased that the Department of Education is taking the time necessary to reconsider their ill-conceived plans to propose an accountability measure that exempts the vast majority of institutions of higher education.”
“We look forward to working with the Department in the months ahead to craft a meaningful and fair rule that applies to all institutions in all sectors,” Altmire said.
For-profit education-industry leaders have criticized the gainful employment rule…
Read More: Biden Delays Gainful Employment, Pushes Student Loan Debt Protection