The White House issued new rules Thursday saying that for-profit schools are actually in charge of limiting the amount of debt that students take on to participate in career-training programs — rather than the students themselves.
The rules come on the heels of years of talk about the level of responsibility for-profit colleges maintain to make sure graduates can transfer their learning into “gainful employment,” The Washington Post reported.
For-profit colleges actually receive most of their revenues from student aid, but to continue that stream of funding, they’ll have to show — beginning in July 2015 — that graduates’ loan responsibilities are only a certain percentage of their job salaries, The Post reported.
Specifically, the loan payments of most graduates can’t exceed 20 percent of discretionary income, or 8 percent of their total earnings, The Post said.
Programs that fail to meet the standard for a certain period of years would lose federal aid funding. Currently, about 1,400 programs are under the gun.
But the new rules have many critics.
“The regulation is ripe for manipulation,” said Barmak Nassirian, the director of federal relations and policy analysis for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, The Post reported. “The majority of students at for-profits don’t graduate. This regulation takes no recognition of their plight, so why even do it?”
Still. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the schools have a responsibility to provide for the students.
“Career colleges must be a stepping stone to the middle class,” he said, The Post reported. “But too many hard-working students find themselves buried in debt with little to show for it. That is simply unacceptable. These regulations are a necessary step to ensure that colleges accepting federal funds protect students, cut costs and improve outcomes.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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