Warren, Colleagues: Congress Should End Loophole That Encourages For-Profit Colleges to Target Veterans & Service Members
Introduce Legislation to Reinstate the 85/15 Rule to Require For-Profit Colleges to Bring in More Revenue from Non-Federal Sources
Washington, DC - U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and four other senators today introduced legislation that would help put an end to the for-profit college industry's aggressive recruiting of veterans, service members, and their families. The Protecting Our Students and Taxpayers (POST) Act would prohibit for-profit colleges and universities from receiving more than 85 percent of their revenue from the federal government and change the calculation of federal revenue to include all federal funds, including Department of Veterans Affairs GI Bill and Department of Defense Tuition Assistance benefits.
Additional Senate cosponsors include Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.).
"Shady for-profit colleges shouldn't get away with cheating students and veterans on the taxpayers' dime," Senator Warren said. "With some for-profit colleges receiving over 90 percent of their revenue from federal dollars, these schools really don't exist without huge amounts of government support. It's time for Congress to end the gravy train."
The current federal 90/10 rule is a provision in the law that bars for-profit colleges and universities from deriving more than 90 percent of their revenue from the U.S. Department of Education's federal student aid programs. The other 10 percent needs to come from sources other than the federal government. The purpose of this rule is to ensure that schools are not counting on taxpayer dollars as their sole source of revenue.
Because of the way the law is written, veterans' and active duty service members' federal education benefits - such as G.I. bill education benefits and the Department of Defense's tuition assistance funds - do not currently count toward the 90 percent. As a result, for-profit educational institutions have been aggressively recruiting and enrolling veterans, service members, and their families to their programs as a way to comply with the 90/10 rule.
The POST Act would reinstate the original ratio of 85/15 (it was loosened to 90/10 in 1998) and change the definition of what counts as federal revenue so that it includes all federal funds. This new definition would eliminate the powerful incentive for-profit schools to aggressively recruit service members and veterans and ensure that all schools are complying with the law as it was intended. Additionally, the POST Act would count institutional loans (schools can now use Title IV funds from one student to lend to another) in the calculation of federal revenue sources and eliminate a school's Title IV eligibility after one year of noncompliance instead of the three consecutive years it now takes.
The POST Act is supported by: Student Veterans of America; Military Officers Association of America; Paralyzed Veterans of America; Veterans Education Success; The Education Trust; U.S. PIRG; The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS); National Association of College Admission Counseling; American Federation of Teachers; American Association of State Colleges and Universities; and Young Invincibles.
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