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In New Letter, 31 Senators Call On Education Secretary To Strengthen The 90/10 Rule
The 90/10 Rule Is Intended To Prevent For-Profit Colleges From 100 Percent Reliance On Federal Taxpayer Dollars From Student Aid—But A Loophole Allows For-Profit Colleges To Count DoD And Post-9/11 GI Bill Benefits As “Non-Federal Revenue”
Servicemembers And Veterans Are Targets Of Aggressive, Misleading Recruiting By For-Profit Colleges Attempting To Skirt Requirement To Have 10 Percent Non-Federal Revenue
Senators: When schools over-rely on taxpayer dollars—as was the case with Corinthian Colleges—efforts to hold those institutions accountable can lead to bankruptcy and create chaos for students, particularly servicemembers, veterans, and their families.
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Today, Senators Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), Tom Carper (D-DE), and Patty Murray (D-WA), along with 28 other Senate Democrats, sent a letter to Secretary of Education Dr. John King calling for action to protect servicemembers and veterans through a strengthened 90/10 rule. A loophole in federal law currently allows for-profit colleges to exceed the 90 percent federal revenue cap, known as the 90/10 rule, by enrolling servicemembers and veterans who have access to federal educational assistance, including Department of Defense (DOD) Tuition Assistance and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Post-9/11 GI Bill Benefits. This leads to aggressive recruiting of servicemembers and veterans for the use of their hard-earned benefits. In the letter, which comes on the 72nd anniversary of the signing of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (the GI Bill), the Senators are urging the Department of Education to “improve the transparency and accountability of the current 90/10 rule” by providing data on funds flowing through the loophole and implementing additional administrative fixes to how they track and verify these funds.
“We write today to urge you to better protect our military and veteran students and their hard-earned educational benefits by strengthening the 90/10 rule…This rule is designed to ensure that students, employers, communities, and states have sufficient confidence in the quality of education and integrity of a college or university that they are willing to invest some of their own funds in their degree or credential. However, a loophole currently allows colleges to evade the 90/10 rule…,” wrote the Senators. “It is well documented that some large colleges increasingly rely on enrolling servicemembers and veterans to meet their ten percent requirement for outside investment…It is critical that we take active steps to rein in those institutions that are avoiding the intent of our federal protections for students and take away the incentive to use deceptive practices that target veterans and members of our military.”
Today’s letter is the third in a series of requests by Senate Democrats to strengthen college accountability and protect students using the Administration’s authority under the Higher Education Act. The letter addressing the “90/10 loophole” follows an April 2015 letter and was initially documented in a 2012 Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee staff report.
Senate Democrats’ efforts to improve college accountability began in April with a push to hold college accreditors responsible, and the Department took steps toward that goal when it issued a staff recommendation last week to terminate the recognition of ACICS. Senate Democrats also called for a strong and streamlined borrower defense rule, and the Department agreed when it issued a proposed rule last week that significantly improved upon the process to give relief to student loan borrowers who are the victims of unlawful and abusive practices in higher education.
The list of Senators also signing today’s 90/10 letter include: Senators TammyBaldwin (D-WI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Chris Coons (D-DE), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), Al Franken (D-MN), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Jack Reed (D-RI), Harry Reid (D-NV), Gary Peters (D-MI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).
