WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, President Donald Trump signed an executive order addressing free speech, transparency and accountability on campus, a move that comes after conservative groups claimed their voices being silenced at colleges and universities throughout the country.
Aside from ensuring that colleges receiving federal research or education grants promote free speech, the order directs the Education Department to publish program-level outcomes data to the College Scorecard, and submit a report that includes policy recommendations to the White House on student loan risk-sharing, the requirement to hold colleges accountable for their graduates’ ability to repay federal loans.
Center for Responsible Lending Executive Vice President Debbie Goldstein released the following statement:
CRL welcomes the addition of program-level data to the College Scorecard, but the program should not make up for the Education Department’s diminished focus on oversight and the elimination of protections for students who enroll in for-profit institutions. Similarly, the section on risk-sharing in higher education, should focus on holding for-profit institutions, including recently converted non-profit institutions such as the now closed Argosy University, accountable if their graduates don’t earn enough money to repay their student loans.
Instead, the Trump Administration has repeatedly tried to gut the 2014 Gainful Employment (GE) rule that was established to hold career education institutions, especially for-profit colleges, accountable for their costs and for causing students to amass insurmountable student loan debt. If the Administration is truly interested in taking the appropriate steps to ensure that all students are treated fairly, including low-income students and students of color, it should start by strengthening— not weakening — the Gainful Employment rule.
For more information, or to arrange an interview with a CRL spokesperson on this issue, please contact Vincenza Previte at vincenza.previte@responsiblelending.org.