Following Chairman Lamar Alexander’s release of eight bipartisan bills to rewrite parts of the Higher Education Act, Steve Gunderson, President and CEO of Career Education Colleges and Universities, released the following statement:
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“Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act is one of the most important items this Congress can accomplish. While everything in higher education has changed since the last reauthorization, the law underpinning higher education remains stuck in the past.”

Steve Gunderson, President & CEO of Career Education Colleges & Universities issued the following statement:
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“There are two facts of life related to postsecondary education. First, every student and family deserve to know the success or failure of every program/college they are considering. Second, there are good and bad programs across all schools in all sectors. We should join now in a bi-partisan consensus to collect and share maximum transparency of such outcomes. And then, any school with bad program outcomes should improve or drop the program. It’s that simple.

Following Chairman Lamar Alexander’s speech on reauthorizing the Higher Education Act, Steve Gunderson, president and CEO of Career Education Colleges and Universities released the following statement:

“We applaud Chairman Alexander’s leadership on Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act and stand ready to assist him and all stakeholders in this effort. This is a critical time of higher education, and all students and institutions deserve a law that reflects the current reality. Everything has changed in higher education since the last Reauthorization in 2008 – student demographics; academic delivery technologies; growing focus on workforce skills – except the law.”
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“We are supportive of Chairman Alexander’s efforts around simplifying FAFSA, modernizing repayment options for students, and creating a comprehensive loan repayment accountability system. CECU recently commissioned an assessment of repayment rate policies and the research found that a risk-adjusted approach, which factors in student demographics, is the most constructive in addressing student loan repayment performance.”

Steve Gunderson, President & CEO of Career Education Colleges & Universities, issued the following statement:

On behalf of the nation’s 2,700 postsecondary career colleges and universities we are deeply disappointed that the Democrat proposal continues the ideological war against our sector using old issues, and old data as the basis for their proposal.  Today’s sector is not defined by Corinthian and ITT, and public policy should not be defined by the past.

Recognizing the call for outcomes and accountability, today’s postsecondary career education sector has better completion rates, and far better placement rates than those sectors of higher education awarded in the Democrat proposal.  Our two-year and less schools, which comprise over three quarters of the institutions in this sector, have graduation rates more than two times better than the 2-year public sector schools.  When one combines instruction and student service expenditures, we make a larger financial commitment to the total success of our students than any other sector.

During the earlier discussions on Gainful Employment and Borrower Defense, most Democrats told us they support one set of rules for all schools but the current statutes did not allow them to create a rule that did so.  Yet, the Democrat proposal goes further than current law to create one set of provisions for traditional schools and another set of provisions for our sector. 

Finally, Democrats need to stop making veterans political pawns in the debate over public policy.  Veterans listen to veterans. And veterans enroll in our schools because they seek accelerated, focused academic programming leading to a career.  Veterans have earned their GI Benefits, and they should be allowed to use them at any institution of their choice. 

​This nation faces an important challenge today.  A healthy economy needs skilled workers.  We are committed to working with everyone engaged in preparing a new generation of skilled workers.  All we ask for is fairness.  Over 2,000 campuses have been closed since 2010 – most were part of the many large publicly-traded systems that no longer exist. Today’s career education schools reflect the multi-generation family-owned schools that have always served their communities well.

​December 1, 2017 – Arlington, Va. – Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU) praised Chairwoman Virginia Foxx on the introduction of a proposal to reauthorize the Higher Education Act as a victory for students of all backgrounds by directly connecting the Act with jobs and career training.  

Budget Comes on Heels of CECU’s Landmark Proposals to Modernize and Directly Connect the Higher Education Act to Jobs – New Workforce Pell Grant Among Innovative Proposals
 
May 23, 2017 - WASHINGTON, D.C. - Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU) President & CEO Steve Gunderson today commented on the Trump administration’s FY 2018 Budget. Gunderson highlighted the Pell Grant as an area for common ground with Congress and the administration as CECU works to modernize and directly connect the Higher Education Act to jobs. The budget comes one day after CECU unveiled a set of landmark proposals that the association is converting into two significant pieces of bipartisan legislation - a higher education jobs bill and a bill to modernize postsecondary education. 

Association Offers the Most Comprehensive, First-of-its-Kind Proposal to Connect the HEA to Jobs – Effort Underway to Convert Recommendations into Two Separate Bipartisan Bills

May 22, 2017 - WASHINGTON, D.C. - Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU) today unveiled a set of landmark proposals to modernize and directly connect the Higher Education Act to jobs. The recommendations seek to update the Higher Education Act in ways that speak to both today’s college students and their specific career needs. CECU is working to convert the recommendations into two significant pieces of bipartisan legislation - a higher education jobs bill and a bill to modernize postsecondary education.