The higher education system is broken, but instead of fixing it, the Department of Education is intent on breaking it even more.
The gainful employment rule was an Obama-era regulation that protected against the predatory loan practices of for-profit colleges by monitoring their students’ ability to earn back their debt after graduation. Last week, the Department of Education repealed it, the culmination of their years-long attempt to free for-profit colleges from what Betsy DeVos deemed as unfair targeting of for-profit institutions by Democrats. The rule was simple, it made sure students were able to pay off their loans after graduation, and kept the quality of an education in check with its cost. Now, DeVos has stripped that protection, and allowed for-profit colleges to slip back into their deceptive and fraudulent behaviors, with the potential to worsen an already dire student-debt crisis. Since the Department of Education has enabled for-profit educational institutions to take advantage of students, policymakers need to put more permanent measures in place to protect them.