Some African-American and Hispanic leaders have taken a stand against proposed federal rules designed to curb student-loan defaults at for-profit colleges, arguing the strictures would reduce the educational options of minority students, who represent a large part of the enrollment at the schools.
Rev. Jesse Jackson of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and some members of the Congressional Black and Hispanic caucuses have sent letters to the U.S. Department of Education opposing draft regulations that would cut off access to federal student aid to for-profit schools that appear to have prepared too few of their graduates for “gainful employment.”
The Career College Association, which represents the schools, states that 43 percent of their 2.8 million students and 39 percent of their graduates are minorities. It says 23 percent of African-Americans and 18 percent of Hispanics with associate degrees attended career colleges, as the trade association calls its 1,500 members.
“I am concerned that the proposed rule casts too broad and too general a brush on many institutions, some of whom are doing an excellent job at serving economically disadvantaged and minority students,” Jackson wrote in a Sept. 15 letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan. “The department’s proposed approach will hinder the access of minority students to higher education and will make it even more difficult to realize President (Barack) Obama’s goal of leading the world in the percentage of college graduates by 2020.”
Similar criticisms are made in letters to Education Department officials signed by 12 of the 39 voting members of the Congressional Black Caucus and four of 23 voting members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The signers include three of the four Black members of the House Education and Labor Committee: Reps. Donald Payne of New Jersey, Bobby Scott of Virginia and Yvette Clarke of New York, all Democrats. Among Hispanic critics are Ed Pastor, an Arizona Democrat who is the third-most senior Hispanic in the House, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican.
A Sept. 8 congressional letter to the department predicts the proposed rules would “disproportionately impact the many low-income, first-generation students, single parents, minority and veteran students served by these institutions.” Payne, Scott and two other Black Democrats, Alcee L. Hastings of Florida and Edolphus Towns of New York, were among the 10 House members who signed the letter.
The department maintains that the proposed rules, released for public comment in July and slated to be finalized by Nov. 1, would protect students who find out too late their occupational training does not impress employers.
