“’This is a game changer. Finally, after a decade of our asking, Congress is going to stop the ugly harassment of veterans by for-profit colleges,’ said Carrie Wofford, president of Veterans Education Success. ‘Of course, we wish it would stop immediately, but we’ll take the delay to secure bipartisan support.’
“Because the GI Bill dollars count toward helping for-profits meet the 10 percent minimum requirement, advocacy groups like Veterans Education Success have argued that the rule gives for-profit institutions an incentive to aggressively recruit service members and veterans, leading many of them to be defrauded by low-quality institutions. The relief bill would remove that incentive by beginning to count GI Bill dollars as federal money.
Career Education Colleges and Universities, the industry group for for-profit institutions, had argued that if the GI Bill dollars were to count against meeting the 10 percent minimum requirement, the for-profits could begin turning away veterans and service members.
Critics of the for-profit industry, though, strongly disputed the argument. ‘That’s ridiculous, as well as illegal,’ said Wofford, on Saturday. ‘Any school that blocks enrollment to veterans will get hauled into court for illegal discrimination. Closing the loophole simply restores the 90-10 law to its purpose: to ensure taxpayer dollars aren’t artificially propping up failing private corporations offering such low quality that they cannot attract employer-funded or private-paying students.’”
Read the full report at Inside Higher Ed here.