October 17, 2023
(Alexandria, Virginia) – Today Consumer Action for a Strong Economy (CASE) joined with a dozen free-market and limited government organizations in a coalition letter seeking action from Congress to stop the Biden administration’s attack on career and for-profit colleges through the oppressive and discriminatory “gainful employment” rule (GER).
Targeted at career-colleges and institutions long disfavored by the liberal education establishment, the GER would empower federal bureaucrats to deny student loans based on arbitrary and meaningless standards pertaining to graduates’ anticipated salary in their chosen field, while failing to hold public universities and traditional 4-year private institutions to the same standard.
The letter, addressed to House Committee on Education & the Workforce Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC), asks for the 1,000 page proposed rule to be vetted and annulled through the Congressional Review Act (CRA) due to its exceptionally damaging intent toward the aspirations of millions of non-traditional degree seekers, including veterans, working adults, minority students, active military personnel, and numerous others.
Said CASE chairman Gerard Scimeca, “The GER will rob millions of working adults, veterans, and other non-traditional college students of the opportunity to choose their own career path and seek a better future for themselves and their families. No bureaucrat in Washington should have the right to dictate to any student what education and profession they are allowed to pursue, especially when no such restrictions apply to tens of millions of students who hold degrees from public universities that sadly have resulted in salaries insufficient to pay back student loans.
“As was made clear by the Obama-era bureaucrats who first attempted to enact the GER, the goal of Biden’s DOE is to close the doors of any school that does not abide by the dictates of the elite education establishment. This includes the growing number of institutions that are not only innovators in higher education, but provide numerous options and scheduling flexibility to meet the needs of today’s adult learners. Without these colleges, millions of students will sadly see the door for opportunity and a better future slammed in their faces. They and every American pursuing education and career training as a path to a better life deserves better. “
See the coalition letter here:
