CASE Capitol Hill Briefing Takes On Education Department Bias
On September 12, Consumer Action for a Strong Economy (CASE) hosted a briefing with congressional staff to address the ongoing and pervasive abuses by the Biden-Harris U.S. Department of Education.
The hour-long conversation featured education policy experts and advocates for the Veterans community to discuss the tactics the biased Department is using to close career colleges, trap students in expensive universities, and push through billions in illegal taxpayer-funded student loan bailouts.
CASE was honored to host opening remarks by Representative Burgess Owens (R-UT) which were followed a panel featuring Bob Carey (National Defense Committee), Andrew Gillen (CATO Institute), Paul Zimmerman (Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies) and Preston Cooper, higher education economist, CASE’s Gerry Scimeca moderated the event.
Watch the full video here.
Key Quotes
“The current administration made it harder for veterans and active-duty members to use these benefits effectively. The Biden Harris Department of Education has imposed rules that complicate how service members can use their educational benefits.”
“The 90/10 rule expanded over last year to cover GI benefits requires schools to get at least 10% of their revenue from non-federal sources. But the DC bureaucrats in their infinite wisdom has left distant learning programs out of this rule, even though distance learning is booming, a growth of 900% since 2000, and is expected to continue to grow. The Gainful Employment Rule forces career education institutions to prove their graduates earn more than those who need to go to college. This rule unfairly targets non-traditional schools, while traditional schools are given a pass with zero accountability.”
“Our goal is clear to push back against restrictive policies of the current administration and support the educational choices that best serve our military and veteran students.”
“For the last few years we’ve been tracking the actions of student financial aid office of enforcement, their harassment, their own, their Shakedown and career oriented and non-traditional colleges.”
“The enforcement hadn’t really not been used very much at all, but in their first two years, they had six investigations all into career colleges, just went right out of the gate right after them. And of the 13 investigations they started up until last year in the Biden administration, 10 out of 13 were against non-traditional career colleges.”
“The DOE employs a very abusive sue and settle strategy, unilaterally declaring schools in violation of some rule, a complete violation of their due process. And with the DOE, you are guilty until you prove you are innocent, but you’ll probably be broke by then.”
“Two thirds of college age students or high school students don’t trust in a college degree. They don’t think it’s worth it, and the free market has provided a natural remedy. Through these career colleges, they realize they can get an education that they can afford, that they can pay for, that will teach them skill, that will give them job security for life, that they could become an entrepreneur and open a business one day.”
“I really appreciate what the committee staff and Chairwoman Foxx have done with the CCRA. They’re reining in the abuses of this DOE, and instead of them acting as a unilateral legislative body as judge, jury and executioner, hopefully with this legislation, we’ll see more free market solutions, more open competition and just an overall better opportunity for students and their futures.”
Additional Resources
Washington Times Special Section on Higher Education: Higher Ed Harassment: Is the Education Department overreach harming America’s college students?
Nation Defense Committee Report: Condescending Paternalism: The Department of Education’s Unwarranted Limits on Veterans’ EARNED Education Benefits.
CASE Fact Sheet on the Gainful Employment Rule.
CASE Memo on Secretary Cardona’s Bias Towards Career Colleges: Cardona Bias Against Career Colleges