For-profit college trade groups are running ads trumpeting black and Hispanic opposition to rules that would cut student loans and grants for career programs with high debt-to-earnings ratios and default rates. But other minorities strongly support the “gainful employment” rule, saying it will protect students from going into debt for degrees of dubious value, reports Bloomberg.
Most minority House members voted to let the rules go forward in February’s budget negotiations.
“The way the for-profits and their lobbyists point to their supposed care for and support of low-income students and people of color is, to me, offensive,” said California Representative Maxine Waters, a Democrat and member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of more than 200 U.S. advocacy groups for minorities and the poor, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People support the proposal, called the gainful employment rule.
The for-profit sector has lobbied strenuously against the regulation, generating a flood of comments that have delayed publication of the rule, notes Higher Ed Watch. “Mad Libs’ Career College Edition,” quotes a form letter signed by a student named Farnaz:
I am a career college student at [INSTITUTION] studying [PROGRAM]. [INSTITUTION] is providing me with the education and training necessary to obtain the job I`ve always wanted as a [CAREER]. The Department of Education`s proposed gainful employment rule could take this dream away from me and thousands of other students by denying us the federal financial aid to which we are entitled [EXPLAIN ANY OTHER CONCERNS YOU HAVE ABOUT LOSING ACCESS TO THE PROGRAM OF YOUR CHOICE AT YOUR INSTITUTION.]
Farnaz didn’t bother to fill in the blanks.
