“Barmak Nassirian, vice president for higher education policy at Veterans Education Success, an advocacy group, has participated in several rounds of rule making on gainful employment and other topics. He’s worried about giving judges the power to decide higher education policy—judgments that require an understanding of the technical details of regulations.
“We’re talking about taking challenges that make your eyes glaze over,” he said. “The notion that you can now take this to a judge who has never heard of gainful employment until the case has popped up—it’s hard to believe.”
Nassirian added that deference to agencies isn’t “always a happy thing,” particularly if you disagree with the party in power. But then when the politics favor your interests, he said, there are opportunities to change policies.
“That’s the nature of democracy,” he said. “This basically ends all of that.”
Read the full column at Inside Higher Ed here.