My Challenge to For-Profit Schools: Champion Protections for Students and Taxpayers

Good morning. My name is Mark Takano and I have the privilege of representing Riverside, California and the surrounding areas that comprise California's 41st Congressional District.

As a public school teacher for 24 years and a community college trustee for more than two decades I am intensely focused on ensuring a fair and effective higher education system. As evidence, this is my third appearance at a negotiated rule making session to discuss my concerns with the direction of the Department's policy towards the for-profit education industry.

In my previous appearances, I have highlighted the mountain of data showing that for-profit schools are more expensive and less effective than their public and non-profit counterparts. I have shared the findings of Senate Committee reports and independent analyses that document patterns of deception and fraud.

I have shared stories of student veterans who were robbed of the GI Bill benefits they earned by predatory for-profit schools.

This morning, instead of rehashing those data points, I want to speak directly to the for-profit colleges represented in this room. My comments today are intended for the schools that feel unfairly smeared by the behavior of a few bad actors… the schools that claim to follow the rules and give students the education that they promise….because the schools I just described should be the most forceful champions for the Gainful Employment rule.

The entire point of this rule is to assess each school and each program on its individual merits. By setting a minimum standard for for-profit schools and non-degree programs, it provides an opportunity for your institutions to demonstrate their value to students.

For several years, I have heard industry leaders object to broad characterizations of for-profit education.
In light of these objections, I am frustrated that the schools represented here today are not eagerly embracing a platform to solidify their credibility and separate themselves from the bad actors that have fleeced students and taxpayers out of billions of dollars.

The reality is that no for-profit enterprise is entitled to collect taxpayer money, and that is particularly true for an industry with such a checkered history. The pattern of unethical behavior by for-profit institutions should be the burden on them to provide quantitative evidence of students' success, which is exactly what the Gainful Employment rule aims to collect. It collects data on deb-to-earnings ratios.

I am also frustrated by objections to this rule on the basis of ensuring access to higher education or the idea that the marketplace can regulate the industry because they fundamentally misrepresent the government's priorities and interests.

The government's overriding interest is its responsibility to protect students and taxpayers.
According to numerous studies, and the Department of Education's own Inspector General, the existing Gainful Employment rule is critical to satisfying that interest by holding for-profit schools and non-degree programs accountable.

I am surely one of the last people that the for-profit industry would ask for advice. But I'll offer it anyway.
In the long run, the industry's intense resistance to the Gainful Employment and Borrowers Defense rules will be profoundly damaging to its future. By shielding the bad actors in the for-profit education sector from accountability, you become responsible for the students and taxpayers they defraud.

With each new story of a veteran that is cheated out of the future they earned, with each new study that suggests students would be better off not going to any school rather than enrolling at a for-profit college, with each abrupt closure of a for-profit campus, the industry loses credibility and jeopardizes its role in higher education.

The Gainful Employment rule provides a critical opportunity to align the goals of students, taxpayers, regulators, and for-profit institutions. I sincerely hope the schools represented here will reconsider their opposition to this rule, and instead use it as a platform to demonstrate their commitment to serving students and respecting taxpayers.

I once again appreciate the opportunity to provide input and encourage the Department of Education to fulfill its responsibility and protect the effectiveness and integrity of our higher education system.

Thank you.

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