Dr. Charlie Eaton at the University of California – Merced and Dr. Marybeth Gasman at the University of Pennsylvania were decrying intimations by the Department of Education that it intended to rescind “gainful employment” rules written to protect post-secondary students from institutions with predatory recruiting practices, subpar graduation rates, meager earnings for graduates and high levels of student loan debt.
Now, the two academics are among those lamenting the damage that they say low-income and minority students are likely to suffer as a result of the federal agency’s official decision to jettison regulations put in place by the Obama administration to help police programs at for-profit, career-education and other post-secondary institutions that receive title IV funding.
The policy change “is not smart and further disenfranchises low-income students and disproportionate numbers of students of color who attend for-profit institutions,” said Gasman, the outgoing Judy & Howard Berkowitz Professor of Education at the University of Pennsylvania and incoming distinguished professor and Samuel DeWitt Proctor Endowed Chair in Education at Rutgers University.
The education department, under the leadership of secretary Betsy DeVos, seems to be “neither dedicated to increasing equity nor making students’ lives more supportive,” Gasman added.
Eaton said he believes the rescission “will definitely have a negative impact for low-income students and other vulnerable groups, including veterans and communities of color that are often targeted by for-profit colleges.”
Eaton also predicted that the department’s revocation will face legal challenges and that the education department likely would lose.
The department “has not had a good track record of defending its regulatory repeals in court, so this may not stand up when challenged in court,” he said.
