January 3, 2024
Last year was a momentous time for higher education in America, and not at all in a good way. For all the Democrats’ rhetoric lauding education as the key to hope and opportunity for everyone, they cheered heartily as Joe Biden’s Department of Education (DOE) took a jackhammer to the road to higher education for perhaps millions of current and future students who may soon have no path. Taxpayers, our nation’s workforce and learning institutions themselves also took significant hits from an education agenda driven by leftist ideology. Using the proverbial report card to summarize the past year, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and his agency have earned solid “Fs” with a grade point average that would make Bluto Blutarsky beam with pride.
Worse than any fraternity on double-secret probation, the DOE ran amok over the rules of common sense and decency, using political power to reward friends and punish enemies. The highlights – though lowlights are a more accurate characterization – of Biden’s higher education blueprint are dissected below to clear the fog and expose the deliberate political intent behind each atrocious policy.
Student Loan Bailout Tossed by the Supreme Court. Joe Biden made it a fixture of his presidential campaign to eliminate the student loan debt for millions of borrowers. Despite his promise, many leaders – including then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi – noted the lack of a legal authority to actually accomplish this feat. Since Day One the DOE has sought to circumvent the law to achieve a political win through a taxpayer-funded bailout using emergency powers.
Thankfully, the Supreme Court ruled in June this was in violation of the U.S. Constitution. In the majority opinion, the Supreme Court pointed out that the DOE does not have the authority to cancel student debt on a massive scale. After the ruling, Biden ominously warned that “the fight is not over,” keeping his options open for an end-around to the Court’s ruling.
Finalized a Gainful Employment Rule (GER) that hurts students. In September, the DOE unveiled new regulations that target students who want to attend certain proprietary and career-oriented colleges long disfavored by Democrats because they live outside of the dictates of the entrenched and elitist educational establishment. The so-called Gainful Employment Rule establishes a new, two-pronged test that sets arbitrary standards with the unspoken goal of shuttering career colleges – institutions of higher education that prepare students with important trade skills before they enter the workforce.
These proposed requirements would affect more than 700,000 students per year and apply to all programs offered by for-profit colleges while completely exempting students seeking a degree at a traditional four-year or state funded college. By stifling students’ ability to attend programs at career colleges, the DOE is pushing students to the traditional private and public colleges many sought to avoid.
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