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Press Release: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ Rescission of Gainful Employment Fails Statutory Obligation to Stop Waste, Fraud, and Abuse and to Protect Taxpayer Dollars – and Knowingly Puts Veterans and Servicemembers at Risk

September 13, 2018

For Immediate Release:                                          

Contact: Carrie Wofford, (202) 838-5050

Education Department was well-aware that veterans and servicemembers are especially at risk of waste, fraud, and abuse by the worst-quality colleges.

WASHINGTON, DC — As part of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s ongoing rollback of policies that protect student veterans from predatory for-profit colleges, Secretary DeVos rescinded the Gainful Employment rule — a rule that gives the lowest-performing career education colleges a three-year warning and then, if they don’t improve, strips them of federal funding for consistently leaving students with worthless degrees and student loan debts they cannot repay.

Veterans Education Success submitted a public comment [1]to the Education Department today outlining:

  • The Department’s statutory obligation to stop waste, fraud, and abuse, and to protect taxpayer funds;
  • The reliance of the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs on the Education

Department to serve as a gatekeeper in determining which college programs are worthy of federal investment;

  • That the Education Department is well-aware that veterans and servicemembers are especially at risk as targets of fraud and abuse by the worst quality colleges because of the 90/10 loophole;
  • That the Education Department is failing its statutory obligations in light of the fact that the Gainful Employment rule is proven to combat taxpayer waste on substandard programs.
  • What veterans have to say about the worst quality programs – including quotes from veterans at programs that fail Gainful Employment
  • That the Department’s action fails the “arbitrary and capricious” standard and may well be motivated by conflicts of interest by Trump Administration

Notably, VES’ testimony includes quotes from veterans’ complaints about colleges with programs that the Education Department deemed to “Fail” Gainful Employment – but which DeVos and the current leadership of the Department would seek to resurrect and gratify with federal funds, including:

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