Partial 'Program Integrity'
June 16, 2010
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Education today released a set of proposed rules intended to prevent abuses of federal financial aid programs by establishing new consumer protections, ensuring that only eligible students receive federal aid, and clarifying the courses and programs for which students can use federal aid dollars.
Though the notice of proposed rule making (NPRM) to be published in Friday’s Federal Register includes more than 500 pages of rationale and regulatory language on 15 issues related to the integrity of the federal financial aid programs, what’s most likely to get attention is what’s missing: a full set of regulations defining “gainful employment,” the mechanism through which most programs at for-profit institutions and non-degree programs at nonprofit institutions qualify for federal aid.
In earlier iterations, debated through months of negotiations involving federal officials and a variety of higher education stakeholders, the department had proposed establishing a maximum permissible ratio of the loan debt-to-income ratio for graduates of most programs offered by for-profit colleges. But in the wake of significant pushback from some members of Congress and various voices within higher education, and a demand from the White House Office of Management and Budget for more evidence to support the proposal, the department has chosen to hold off on proposing a specific "metric" to measure whether programs are preparing their students for gainful employment because “we want to get it right,” as Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement.
Department officials say they expect to release the rest of the gainful