Published: July 2017

Once again, Trump favors for-profit college industry over defrauded students

The Trump Administration’s decision to delay and dismantle key student and taxpayer protections against fraudulent for-profit schools is terrible news for struggling student borrowers and a boon for the for-profit college industry. Student, consumer, and veterans' organizations wrote to the Department of Education denouncing its decision to delay and weaken the borrower defense and gainful employment regulations because they protect both students and taxpayers from waste, fraud, and abuse.

Trump administration will suspend borrower defense and renegotiate gainful employment, two Obama administration rules aimed at reining in for-profit colleges. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that repealing the gainful employment regulation alone would cost taxpayers $1.3 billion over the next 10 years. Halting and dismantling these common-sense safeguards will leave taxpayers holding the bag when schools commit fraud or close suddenly, make it easier for unscrupulous schools to defraud students and evade accountability, make it harder for defrauded students to get their loans discharged as provided under the law, and funnel taxpayer dollars to programs that consistently leave students buried in debt they cannot repay.

Lead Organization

The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS)

Other Organizations

AFL-CIO | Allied Progress | American Association of University Professors (AAUP) | American Association of University Women (AAUW) | American Federation of Teachers | Americans for Financial Reform | Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) | Center for Responsible Lending | Consumer Action | Consumer Federation of America | Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety | Consumers Union | Democrats for Education Reform | Demos | East Bay Community Law Center | Education Reform Now | The Education Trust | Faculty Forward Network | Generation Progress | The Greenlining Institute | Higher Ed Not Debt | Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings | Housing and Economic Rights Advocates| Institute for America’s Future | The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) | League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) | Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition | Mobilization for Justice, Inc. | NAACP | National Association for College Admission Counseling | National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA) | National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys | National Black Justice Coalition | National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low income clients) | National Consumers League | National Employment Lawyers Association | New Jersey Citizen Action | One Wisconsin Now | Project on Predatory Student Lending of the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School | Public Citizen | Public Counsel | Public Good Law Center | Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts (PHENOM) | Public Justice | Public Law Center | Service Employees International Union| Student Debt Crisis | Student Veterans of America | U.S. PIRG | UnidosUS | Veterans Education Success | Veterans for Common Sense | Veterans' Student Loan Relief Fund | Woodstock Institute | Young Invincibles

More Information

For more information, please visit TICAS' website.

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Once again, Trump favors for-profit college industry over defrauded students   (FINALGainfulEmploymentandBorrowerDefense.pdf)