Trump and DeVos Giving For-Profit Colleges a Free Pass and Set Fire to Protections

POLITICO reports that, seven months into the Trump administration, Department of Education Secretary DeVos has:

— Moved to gut two major Obama-era regulations reviled by the industry that would have cut off funding to low-performing programs and made it easier for defrauded students to wipe out their loans;

— Appointed a former for-profit college official, Julian Schmoke Jr., to lead the team charged with policing fraud in higher education — one of a slew of industry insiders installed in key positions. Schmoke is a former dean at DeVry University, whose parent company agreed last year to pay $100 million to resolve allegations the company misled students about their job and salary prospects;

— Stopped approving new student fraud claims brought against for-profit schools. The Education Department has a backlog of more than 65,000 applications from students seeking to have their loans forgiven on the grounds they were defrauded, some of which date to the previous administration.

They also say:

“Steve Gunderson, the head of Career Education Colleges and Universities, the main lobbying association for the industry, said the Trump administration represents “a very positive change for us.

“I would say it has dramatically improved over what we had,” he said, adding that the Trump administration’s Education Department “is not engaged in an ideological war from the right, left or somewhere else” against the industry.”

“In another case, DeVos effectively reversed an Obama administration decision to deny federal aid to some campuses being sold by Globe University to another school owned by the same family. Last December, the Obama Education Department yanked federal aid to Globe, a Minnesota-based chain of for-profit colleges, after a state court said the company defrauded students and misrepresented its criminal justice programs. The change, first reported by Inside Higher Ed, was confirmed by documents obtained by POLITICO under a state public records request.”

You might just want to read the full POLITICO article here.