We advocate for military-connected students by pressing federal agencies to do the right thing.

Veterans Affairs

Defense Department

Education Department

Consumer Financial Protection Agencies

Federal Trade Commission

RULES FOR SCHOOLS

Below are some key federal agency rules for colleges – some of which we helped design.

VA Rules

DOD Rules

ED Rules

OTHER AGENCY ACTIVITY

to Protect Students and Taxpayers

Veterans Education Success advocates for military-connected students before all federal agencies. Some examples of our work with other agencies are listed here:

Most of VES’ work with law enforcement agencies like the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is confidential. Here is what’s public:

Our Letters to FTC

FTC’s Crackdown on Fake Military Websites

VES brought to FTC’s attention fake military websites that pretended to be a place where Americans could join the Armed Forces, but never gave the information to the Armed Forces, instead selling patriotic Americans’ personal information to bad actor colleges that bombarded them with deceptive and aggressive recruiting. Some of the websites even wrongly promoted certain bad actor colleges as endorsed by the military.

FTC’s Crackdown on “Military Friendly Schools”

VES brought to FTC’s attention the problem of a company’s “Military Friendly Schools” scheme, wherein it charged schools for the designation of “Military Friendly Schools” and also sent aggressive and deceptive e-mail solicitations to service-members and veterans on behalf of schools that paid.

VES works to make sure the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is doing its job and protecting the military community from fraud, including strong enforcement of the Military Lending Act.

Our Letters to CFPB

Military Lending Act Under Attack

The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) reportedly plans to curtail the enforcement of the Military Lending Act (see National Public Radio:  White House Takes Aim at Financial Protections for Military and New York Times: Mulvaney Looks to Weaken Oversight of Military Lending). Veterans and military groups responded:

  • Nearly 40 veterans and military service organizations call on the CFPB and US Defense Department to stop the rollback of servicemembers’ rights under the Military Lending Act (Aug. 23, 2018) (here)
  • Resubmitted Sept. 5 with additional signatures (here)
  • FULL PAGE NEWSPAPER AD nationwide (here)
  • Sign the Citizens petition: KeepMilitaryProtections.Org
  • Same letter borrowed submitted by a smaller, additional coalition (here)
  • US Senators also write to US Defense Department (here)
  • US Defense Department response (here)
  • American Legion’s Louisiana Commander confronts CFPB’s Mulvaney at a Louisiana Town Hall (here)
  • Bipartisan group of 33 state Attorneys General wrote CFPB urging it to enforce the Military Lending Act and protect servicemembers (here)

Representatives from Veterans Education Success, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the American Legion, Military Officer Association of America, and the National Military Family Association announced their support for increasing protections for service members and their loved ones from predatory lenders through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau during a joint press conference in May 2019.

OUR ADVOCACY

See how we are working to advance higher education success, protecting the integrity and promise of the GI Bill.

Our Advocacy Letters

  • We collaborate with our veteran & military allies to maximize our collective advocacy impact.  We frequently submit formal letters, with policy recommendations, to federal agencies and Congress.

Our Work With Congress

  • We work with Congressional Committees and Members to introduce bills, hold hearings, and urge the executive branch to protect military-connected students.

Our Work with the Executive Branch

  • We work with federal agencies to ensure military-connected students’ hard-earned education benefits are successful and effective.

Our Work with the States

  • An emerging area of our work is helping state policymakers better understand and address the need to improve college quality and accountability.