Gainful Employment Rule: What Does A Failing Program Look Like?

Dept. of Ed just gave failing programs at mostly for-profit colleges an extension on complying with gainful employments rules. CREDIT: Pexels.

Dept. of Ed just gave failing programs at mostly for-profit colleges an extension on complying with gainful employments rules.
CREDIT: Pexels.

Originally appeared on ticas.org

By: Pauline Abernathy on March 7, 2017

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Education announced it was giving schools about three additional months to comply with two requirements under the gainful employment regulation finalized in 2014. This delay is troubling given the urgent need to protect students and taxpayers from career education programs that consistently leave students with debts they cannot repay.  

In January, the Department released the first set of official career education program rates under the gainful employment rule. Fully three-quarters of the rated programs passed the rule’s modest standards outlined in the rule, which measure graduates’ debt compared to their incomes to ensure that federally-funded career education programs at public, non-profit, and for-profit colleges are complying with the statutory requirement that they “prepare students for gainful employment in a recognized occupation.” In fact, nine out of 10 colleges with rated career education programs had no failing programs, including the for-profit college chains American Public University, Capella University, Concorde Career College, ECPI University, Empire Beauty School, Grand Canyon University, and Strayer University.

But 803 programs (9%) failed the test because they consistently leave students with more debt than they can repay. Some of these programs were at schools that have since closed, including ITT Tech and Westwood College. But many other failing programs are still enrolling students and receiving hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. What do these programs look like? Here are some examples.

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