Arlington, VA – Earlier today, Chairman Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) introduced a bill that would reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). WIOA was designed to help job seekers access employment, education, training, and support services to succeed in the labor market and to match employers with the skilled workers they need. The bill appears to remove proprietary institutions from eligibility for WIOA programs by amending the definition of “institution of higher education” to remove references to proprietary institutions.

“We are deeply concerned that this bill’s proactive exclusion of proprietary career schools from the definition of Institution of Higher Education would disqualify those schools from participating,” said CECU’s President and CEO, Dr. Jason Altmire. “Excluding proprietary institutions from participating in WIOA programs would negatively impact thousands of students and further limit the supply of workers in an already limited labor market. We urge Congress not to exclude students attending proprietary institutions from funds that are designed to help job seekers access education and training that strengthens our nation’s workforce.”

For the fact sheet of the WIOA Act of 2022, click here. For the section-by-section of the WIOA Act of 2022, click here. For the full text of the WIOA Act of 2022, click here.

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About Career Education Colleges and Universities
Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU) is the national association serving the proprietary higher education sector. 

Please direct media inquiries to Devin Miller, Director of Communications at Devin.Miller@career.org.

Arlington, VA – Earlier today, the U.S. Department of Education issued a press release and an Electronic Announcement creating a new policy regarding who must sign a program participation agreement (PPA) at non-public institutions. The PPA is an agreement between a higher education institution and the Department that lists the terms and conditions an institution must meet to participate in the federal Title IV programs like Pell Grants and Direct Loans. The Department’s new policy will affect corporations or other legal entities that exercise substantial control over non-public institutions or could have a direct or indirect effect on the institution’s financial responsibility. The Department has made clear that the purpose of these additional PPA signature requirements is so that it can pursue the assets of corporate parents in the event the institution does not pay all outstanding liabilities.

​“Determining whether to pierce the corporate veil should be a fact-specific inquiry,” said CECU’s President and CEO, Dr. Jason Altmire. “When corporate parents intentionally withdraw equity or become the alter ego of the institutional subsidiary, piercing the veil may be appropriate. However, courts have long recognized that piercing the veil is not appropriate in the case of ordinary business decisions. The U.S. Department of Education should take into account all circumstances surrounding an institutional closure before taking the extraordinary step of piercing the corporate veil to reach the assets of the corporate parent.”

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​Arlington, VA – Today marks the end of the U.S. Department of Education’s negotiated rulemaking committee on Institutional and Programmatic Eligibility. As part of this rulemaking, the Department proposed modifying regulations on the 90/10 rule, resurrecting the Gainful Employment regulations, and changes to various other regulations under Title IV of the Higher Education Act. Throughout this negotiated rulemaking process, many of the negotiators representing different types of higher education institutions expressed disappointment with the Department’s proposals and voted against them, including six negotiators (or 40 percent of the committee) voting against the Department’s Gainful Employment (GE) proposal and nine negotiators (or 60 percent of the committee) voting against the changes of ownership and change in control proposal.

​“The stark differences between higher education institutions and the Department of Education on several of the Department’s proposals show how problematic many of these proposed regulations are across all sectors of higher education, not just the for-profit sector,” said CECU’s President and CEO, Dr. Jason Altmire. “We are hopeful that the broad disapproval of many of the Department’s proposals pushes the Department to draft rules that better take into account the views of higher education institutions and the impact the rules would have on 26 million students. The Department still has a chance to write sensible regulations that protect all students and hold public, private nonprofit, and for-profit institutions accountable for their outcomes. We look forward to collaborating with the Department over the next several months as we move into the notice-and-comment phase of the rulemaking process.”
 
We were pleased that the Department incorporated into their GE proposal a suggestion from Brad Adams, the primary negotiator representing proprietary schools, that increased the lag time from when graduates complete their program to when their earnings are measured. We also commend the Department for working with the negotiators representing veterans and proprietary intuitions to reach agreeable language on the proposed 90/10 rule that lead to a consensus.

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About Career Education Colleges and Universities
Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU) is the national association serving the proprietary higher education sector. 

Please direct media inquiries to Devin Miller, Director of Communications at Devin.Miller@career.org

Arlington, VA – Earlier today, the U.S. Department of Education’s negotiated rulemaking committee on Institutional and Programmatic Eligibility took a consensus check on the Department’s proposed gainful employment (GE) rule. The negotiators failed to reach a consensus, with more than 1/3 of the negotiators voting against the proposal, including negotiators representing proprietary, two-year public, private nonprofit, four-year public, and minority-serving institutions, to name a few.

“The number of negotiators voting against the Department of Education’s gainful employment proposal shows that there is broad disapproval across higher education with the Department’s proposed rule,” said CECU’s President and CEO, Dr. Jason Altmire. “We continue to be disappointed that GE targets only for-profit colleges and nondegree programs, which make up only a sliver of all students pursuing a postsecondary education. The Department is essentially proposing a massive GE loophole, where public and nonprofit schools get a pass, no matter their student outcomes.”

In addition, CECU continues to be frustrated by the Department’s refusal to add an earnings appeal process and a transition period, both of which were in the 2014 GE rule. The Department also refuses to calculate debt to earnings (D/E) rates for all programs at all institutions, even if just for informational purposes, robbing students of transparency as they consider what institution to attend.

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​Arlington, VA – Earlier today, Congress unveiled the omnibus spending bill for fiscal year 2022, which provides discretionary appropriations to fund the federal government through September 30 and includes a $400 increase to the maximum Pell Grant award. The House, Senate, and President Biden had all called for an across-the-board increase in Pell Grant funding. Consistent with these requests, the omnibus spending bill increases the maximum Pell Grant for all eligible students, bringing the maximum Pell Grant for award year 2022-2023 to $6,895.
 
“This bipartisan increase to the maximum Pell Grant award will help millions of low-income students pursue their education and career goals, including approximately 900,000 Pell Grant recipients attending a for-profit school,” said CECU’s President and CEO, Dr. Jason Altmire. “We are pleased to see that this increase ensures student equity by being available to all students in all sectors of higher education. We call on Congress to pass this important increase to the Pell Grant and send it to the President’s desk.”
 
You can read the full text of the bill here.

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About Career Education Colleges and Universities
Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU) is the national association serving the proprietary higher education sector. 

Please direct media inquiries to Devin Miller, Director of Communications at Devin.Miller@career.org

Arlington, VA – Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU) was pleased to hear President Biden urge Congress to increase the maximum Pell Grant award in his State of the Union speech, emphasize infrastructure, and highlight a graduate from a CECU member school.

​“Increasing the maximum Pell Grant award by $2,000 would help millions of low-income students achieve their education and career goals,” said CECU’s President and CEO, Dr. Jason Altmire. “An increase in the Pell Grant will help students like Desrine Prayer, who is a single parent working full time and studying to become a nurse. Ms. Prayer is one of the approximately 900,000 Pell Grant recipients attending a for-profit school who would benefit from an increase in the Pell Grant. We believe that all low-income students, including students attending for-profit schools, should be eligible for this increase. We join President Biden in calling on Congress to increase the Pell Grant.”

President Biden also emphasized infrastructure in his speech. Graduates from for-profit schools will be essential to completing infrastructure projects and rebuilding America, with for-profit schools graduating large numbers of truck drivers, HVAC professionals, mechanics, electricians, welders, wind energy technicians, transportation professionals, and other professions that are key to making the President’s infrastructure goals a reality.

We also applaud the First Lady for choosing Pat Gelsinger, the CEO of Intel, as a distinguished State of the Union guest. Mr. Gelsinger, a graduate of CECU member Lincoln Tech, recently announced the construction of a $20 billion Intel semiconductor manufacturing facility, one of the largest such investments in U.S. history, will begin this year.

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About Career Education Colleges and Universities
Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU) is the national association serving the proprietary higher education sector. 

Please direct media inquiries to Devin Miller, Director of Communications at Devin.Miller@career.org.

Arlington, VA – A report released earlier today by the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), a 501(c)3 non-profit, non-partisan research institute, reveals that if the Obama administration’s gainful employment debt-to-earnings test were applied to all programs at all higher education institutions, then 51% of failing programs would be at private nonprofit institutions and 39% of failing programs would be at public institutions. 11% of programs that fail gainful employment under TPPF’s analysis would be at for-profit institutions. TPPF finds that “…by excluding degree programs at public and private nonprofit universities, gainful employment missed the vast majority of programs that leave their students with excessive student loan debt.” 

“This excellent new research from the Texas Public Policy Foundation shows that had gainful employment been applied across all sectors of higher education, the vast majority of failing programs would have been at private nonprofit and public institutions, not for-profit institutions,” said CECU’s President and CEO, Dr. Jason Altmire. “This is a reality that many advocates of accountability for all sectors of higher education have long suspected. Now we have the data to show without a shadow of a doubt that all students across all sectors of higher education need protections to ensure that the programs they’re attending give them a strong return on investment.”

You can read the full report here.

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