Published: June 2018

Keep for-profit school dollars out of the VA

An ethics law that prohibits Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employees from receiving money or owning a stake in for-profit colleges that rake in millions in G.I. Bill tuition has "illogical and unintended consequences," according to VA, which is pushing to suspend the 50-year-old statute for some of its employees. Consumer Action joined the coalition in urging the VA to abandon this plan. Suspending the law would make it easier for the for-profit education industry to exploit its biggest cash cow: veterans.

There is a documented history of for-profit schools targeting veterans with deceptive and surreptitious recruiting for substandard educational services. A loophole in the federal Higher Education Act (the so-called “90/10 loophole”) creates the incentive for such conduct by allowing these schools to use GI Bill funds to offset an otherwise applicable cap they face on federal funding. Financial entanglements between VA employees and for-profit schools that seek GI Bill payments put veterans at risk and should be avoided at all costs.

Lead Organization

Veterans Education Success

Other Organizations

Air Force Women Officers Associated | American Federation of Government Employees | Campaign Legal Center | AMVETS | Center for Law and Social Policy | Army Aviation Association of America | Center for Public Interest Law, University of San Diego | Blue Star Families | Center for Responsible Lending | Hildreth Institute | Consumer Action | Ivy League Veterans Council | Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition | Consumer Federation of America | Military Order of the Purple Heart | National Association of Veterans' Program Administrators | National Military Family Association | Higher Ed, Not Debt | Project on Predatory Student Lending

More Information

Click here to read the letter in full.

For more information, please visit Veterans Education Success.

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