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Arlington, VA – Today, the U.S. Department of Education released its final Gainful Employment rule. "Once again, the Department has rushed the process, overlooking critical issues, to hastily implement and weaponize a final Gainful Employment rule against for-profit institutions. The Department continues to put its thumb on the scale to circumvent established procedures and advance a partisan rule that fails to protect the vast majority of students,” said CECU’s President and CEO, Dr. Jason Altmire. “CECU has continually advocated for a rule that ensures the protection of all students and maintains equal accountability for public, private nonprofit, and for-profit institutions – an objective this rule does not achieve.” ### About Career Education Colleges and Universities
Representing more than 1,100 campuses and affiliate members across North America, Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU) is the national association representing private postsecondary career schools. Please direct media inquiries to Jenny Faubert, Vice President of Communications, at Jenny.Faubert@career.org. Arlington, VA – CECU is pleased to announce that Jed Brinton has joined the association as Senior Vice President and General Counsel. A graduate of Yale Law School, Jed served in the U.S. Department of Education from 2017 to 2020, when he was Special Counsel managing the Department’s litigation process for higher education. He also served as the Department’s Deputy General Counsel for Postsecondary Education. He has worked at law firms specializing in higher education, and was a judicial clerk at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Jed will be overseeing CECU’s Litigation Committee and the work related to various federal regulatory matters important to career schools. “We are thrilled to add someone of Jed’s caliber to our leadership team,” said CECU President and CEO, Dr. Jason Altmire. “He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience that will be of great benefit to our members as we face an increasingly challenging federal regulatory environment.” ### About Career Education Colleges and Universities
Representing more than 1,100 campuses and affiliate members, Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU) is the national association representing private postsecondary career schools. Please direct media inquiries to Jenny Faubert, Vice President of Communications, at Jenny.Faubert@career.org. Arlington, VA – Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted CCST’s motion for an injunction blocking the Biden administration from implementing its borrower defense to repayment and closed school discharge regulations. “We are pleased that the Fifth Circuit has ruled in favor of delaying the onset of the borrower defense to repayment and closed school discharge regulations. The facts presented by Career Colleges & Schools of Texas (CCST) are compelling. Imposing these two provisions would have been detrimental to career schools in Texas and across the country,” said CECU’s President and CEO Dr. Jason Altmire. “CCST’s legal case against the Department of Education’s unlawful BDR rule is strong and we are confident that when the case is brought forward the facts will show the new rule to be an agency overreach in violation of the Department’s authority, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Constitution. Knowing that this rule has a strong chance to be struck down during the upcoming legal process, it is unjustifiable to allow its implementation while the court proceedings continue. We are pleased that today’s ruling upholds this view.” ### 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 Jenny Faubert, Vice President of Communications, at Jenny.Faubert@career.org. Arlington, VA – Today, the U.S. Department of Education released its long-awaited Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on gainful employment. “CECU is disappointed that the Department did not take into account stakeholder feedback and failed to implement substantive changes to its gainful employment proposal, which continues to exempt the majority of postsecondary education programs and fails to protect millions of students,” said CECU’s President and CEO Jason Altmire. “The rule unfairly targets programs at proprietary institutions and fails to account for the unique challenges facing students and communities that career-oriented programs serve. During the public comment phase, we urge the Department to consider sensible changes that improve the rule to protect all students and hold public, private nonprofit, and for-profit institutions equally accountable for their outcomes.” Background: It would be incorrect to report that the Department lacks the authority to apply meaningful accountability measures to schools beyond programs that lead to gainful employment in a recognized occupation. As consumer advocates have pointed out, Section 454(a)(4) of the Higher Education Act allows the Department to propose and adopt outcomes-based accountability measures across all schools and all sectors to ensure a system of quality assurance. ### 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 Jenny Faubert, Vice President of Communications, at Jenny.Faubert@career.org. Arlington, VA – As Congress continues to debate various proposals to expand the Pell Grant to short-term programs, 16 Democratic House members today sent a letter to House leaders asking that students attending proprietary institutions be fully eligible for any short-term Pell Grant. “We are grateful to these 16 members of Congress for their leadership in ensuring that all students have access to Pell Grants for high-quality, short-term programs at whichever institution best suits their educational needs and life circumstances,” said CECU's President and CEO, Dr. Jason Altmire. “We agree that all students, regardless of the type of institution they attend, should have equal access to financial aid programs that can help them achieve their career goals.” The 16 signatories include:
### 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 Jenny Faubert, Vice President of Communications, at Jenny.Faubert@career.org. Arlington, VA – Today, Federal Student Aid’s Office of Enforcement announced it has added the use of “secret shoppers” to monitor and investigate misrepresentation and fraud in Title IV eligible higher education marketing, recruitment, enrollment, and other practices. “We support reasonable practices that hold all institutions accountable for misrepresentations that financially harm students and taxpayers; however, the federal government has a track record of using secret shopper investigations to malign politically unfavored institutions with distorted findings that later result in the need for public correction,” said Nicholas Kent, CECU’s chief policy officer. “Given the current administration’s animus toward for-profit institutions, we are concerned this self-proclaimed ‘tool’ will be used as a weapon to inflict further damage upon private career schools and limit student choice.” ### 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 Jenny Faubert, Vice President of Communications, at Jenny.Faubert@career.org. February 28, 2023 Arlington, VA – Today, a complaint was filed in a Texas federal court challenging the U.S. Department of Education (Department)’s recently promulgated borrower defense to repayment rule (BDR Rule). CECU regional partner Career Colleges & Schools of Texas (CCST) initiated the lawsuit in an effort to set aside the unlawful BDR Rule on the grounds that it violates the U.S. Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act, which sets out the process and procedures that federal agencies must follow in making and enforcing rules and regulations. CECU supports this effort and is proud of CCST’s leadership in bringing this critical legal challenge to fight for the future of career education students and schools, which are essential to meeting the needs of our country’s healthcare, infrastructure, and other skilled trade industries. CECU has previously and repeatedly stated that a legal challenge, like the one now brought by CCST, could be necessary if the Department refused to withdraw and replace the deficient BDR Rule, which is currently set to take effect on July 1, 2023. Over the past several months, CECU has spearheaded a multi-pronged campaign to raise awareness about the devastating impact of the BDR Rule and advocate for its withdrawal. We have long supported carefully considered and thoughtful Department rules and policies that promote (as well as protect) the interests of both students and schools alike. This BDR Rule, however, fails in each respect. CECU is confident that the Texas court will reach the correct legal determination and set aside the newly promulgated BDR Rule, which threatens to irreparably harm the American higher education system and deny generations of students access to career education. Students who are harmed by unlawful actions should be protected, but the Department must also be bound by the law, and act properly within its authority. “The Department’s newly promulgated rule suffers from fatal due process deficiencies and threatens crippling liability for schools across the country,” said CECU president and CEO, Dr. Jason Altmire. “CECU has led the sector’s response to these unlawful regulations because they irrationally expand the potential acts and omissions of schools that give rise to a borrower defense to loan repayment, while eliminating the procedural protections necessary to protect schools against erroneous loan discharges and presumptions of liability.” The complaint is available here. ### 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 Jenny Faubert, Vice President of Communications, at Jenny.Faubert@career.org. |
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