May 04, 2017

Warren, Durbin and Brown Call for Inspector General Investigation of Education Department's Delay of Gainful Employment Rule

Full text of the letter available here (PDF)

Washington, D.C. - Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), today asked the Inspector General of the Education Department (ED) to investigate the delay of two key implementation deadlines of the Gainful Employment (GE) rule.

In a letter to the Inspector General, the senators raised concerns about ED's recent decision to delay reporting deadlines that help the department determine whether career programs are meeting the Higher Education Act's "Gainful Employment" requirements. With little rationale provided by the department, the dates for schools to submit appeals to their earnings data and demonstrate compliance with the GE rule's disclosure requirements have both been delayed by several months.

"These rules help ensure that career preparation programs with access to federal student aid are not saddling their students with mountains of debt for degrees and credentials that will not help students get jobs," wrote the senators.

These rules have been the target of aggressive lobbying by for-profit colleges. In an effort to determine the reasons for the delay, and to ensure it was not the result of a politically driven attempt to halt these rules, the senators requested that the Inspector General launch an investigation into the rationale for and process of the delay.

Note: a previous version of this press release was issued on March 15th, and was updated on May 4th.

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